HHIBBi 


'• .  «  .  • 


JJCSB  LIBRARY  , 


American  Mature 

Group  VI.    The  Philosophy  of  Nature.    Edited  by  V.  L.  Kellogg 

THE 

STABILITY    OF    TRUTH 

A  DISCUSSION  OF  REALITY  AS  RELATED 
TO  THOUGHT  AND  ACTION 


President  of  Stanford  University 


"  Veritatis  laus  omnis  in  actione  consistit." — CICERO 
"  Al  frier  de  los  huevos;  se  vera."— CERVANTES 


COPYRIGHT,  1911, 

BY 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


Published,  January,  1911 


THE    CUINN    £    BODEN    CO.    PRESS 


EDITOR'S  PREFACE 

THE  generalizations  and  principles  of  science,  the 
significance  of  scientific  facts,  the  consequences  of 
recognizing  and  adopting  in  our  daily  life  the  knowl- 
edge of  science:  these  are  the  subjects  of  this  series 
of  books,  to  be  called  the  Philosophy  of  Nature 
Series. 

The  science  which  will  be  most  in  evidence  in 
these  books  is  the  science  of  living  things,  biology. 
And  it  is  the  application  of  the  scientific  knowledge 
of  living  things  in  general  to  the  conduct  of  human 
life  in  particular  which  will  be  the  subject  most 
conspicuous  in  the  list  of  titles  of  the  books  of  the 
series. 

This  first  book,  then,  a  robust  treatment  of  sci- 
ence in  life,  by  a  robust  exponent  of  the  life  scien- 
tific, should  be  a  most  excellent  introduction  to  the 
Series. 

V.  L.  K. 

STANFORD  UNIVERSITY 
April,  1911 


PREFACE 

THIS  little  book  represents  the  substance  of  a 
course  of  lectures  delivered  on  the  John  Calvin 
McNair  Foundation,  in  the  University  of  North 
Carolina,  at  Chapel  Hill,  in  January,  1910,  at  the 
invitation  of  President  Francis  P.  Venable.  By 
the  provisions  of  the  will  of  Mr.  McNair,  fifty  years 
ago,  the  University  authorities  were  directed,  from 
time  to  time,  to  "  employ  some  able  scientific  gen- 
tleman to  deliver  before  the  students  then  in  at- 
tendance at  the  University  a  course  of  lectures,  the 
object  of  which  lectures  shall  be  to  show  the  mu- 
tual bearing  of  science  and  theology  upon  each 
other,  and  to  prove  the  existence  (so  far  as  may 
be)  of  God  from  Nature."  This  book  treats  es- 
pecially of  the  relation  of  realities  to  human  ex- 
perience and  to  human  conduct. 

The  writer  is  under  special  obligations  to  his 
colleague,  Professor  Henry  Waldgrave  Stuart,  for 
trenchant  criticisms,  by  which  he  has  tried  to 
profit. 

D.  S.  J. 

Stanford  University,  California, 
November  16,  1910. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  REALITY  AND  SCIENCE 3 

II.  REALITY  AND  THE  CONDUCT  OF  LIFE 47 

III.  REALITY  AND  MONISM 65 

IV.  REALITY  AND  ILLUSION  95 

V.  REALITY  AND  EDUCATION 143 

VI.  REALITY  AND  TRADITION 161 

INDEX 177 


THE  STABILITY  OF  TRUTH 


REALITY  AND  SCIENCE 

"  Nous  sommes  des  hommes  et  non  pas  des  dieux ;  nous  ne 
savons  le  tout  de  rien,  mais  nous  savons  quelque  chose. 
C'est  peu,  sans  doute,  mais  ce  peu  suffit." — GEORGE  FONSEGRIVE. 

I  ONCE  walked  in  a  garden  with  a  little  girl,  to 
whom  I  told  James  Whitcomb  Riley's  story  of 
the  "  goblins  that  get  you  if  you  don't  watch  out," 
an  uncanny  freak  of  the  imagination  supposed  to  be 
especially  attractive  to  children.  "  But  there  isn't 
any  such  thing  as  a  goblin,"  said  the  practical  little 
girl,  "  and  there  isn't  ever  going  to  be  any  such 
thing."  In  a  spirit  of  philosophic  doubt  I  said  to 
her,  "  Maybe  there  isn't  any  such  a  thing  as  any- 
thing." 

"  Yes,  there  is,"  she  said,  as  she  looked  about  the 
garden  for  unquestioned  reality.  "  Yes,  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  anything.  There  is  such  a  thing  as 
a  squash." 

And  in  this  conclusion  of  the  little  girl,  the  reality 
of  the  objective  world,  the  integrity  of  science,  the 
sanity  of  man  are  alike  bound  up.  The  distinction 
between  objective  and  subjective,  between  reality  of 
perception  and  illusion  of  nerve  disorder,  between 

3 


4  Reality  and  Science 

fact  and  dream,  between  presence  and  memory,  is 
fundamental  in  human  psychology — is  essential  in 
human  conduct. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  set  forth  the 
doctrine  that  the  final  test  of  truth  is  found  in  trust- 
ing our  lives  to  it.  Truth  is  livable,  while  error  is 
not,  and  the  difference  appears  through  the  strain  of 
the  conduct  of  life.  Science  is  human  experience 
tested  and  set  in  order.  The  primal  impulse  as  well 
as  the  final  purpose  of  science  is  the  conduct  of  life. 
It  is  held  that  science  cannot  grasp  ultimate  truths, 
that  is,  it  cannot  grasp  any  truth  in  final  or  absolute 
completeness.  But  science  may  grasp  certain  rela- 
tions of  truth  and  certain  phases  of  reality  and  may 
state  these  in  terms  of  previous  human  experience. 
Such  versions  or  transcripts  of  reality  are  truth,  and 
they  represent  actual  verity  so  far  as  they  go. 

Incidentally  it  is  held  that  pure  science  cannot  be 
separated  from  applied  science,  or  knowledge  in  ac- 
tion, in  which  science  finds  its  verification;  that 
philosophy  is  an  outgrowth  of  science — the  logic  or 
mathematics  of  human  experience,  and,  finally,  that 
in  all  matters  concerning  human  conduct  science  fur- 
nishes the  final  guide,  or,  at  least,  that  any  guide  to 
thought  and  action  which  has  proved  to  be  safe  be- 
comes by  that  fact  a  part  of  science.  Right  action 
is  the  final  purpose  of  science,  and  in  like  fashion 
and  in  the  same  degree  the  acquisition  of  truth  is  the 
crowning  glory  of  human  endeavor. 

It  is  claimed  that  there  exists  a  parallelism  or  cor- 


Reality  and  Science  5 

relation  between  the  actual  character  of  objects  in 
nature,  and  the  impressions  these  objects  make  on 
the  nervous  system  of  man  and  of  other  animals. 
The  impression  is  not  the  object,  and  it  is  the  im- 
pression, not  the  thing  itself,  which  man  sees  or 
feels,  but  object  and  impression  run  the  same  course. 
The  one  is  the  inevitable  effect  of  the  other,  as  im- 
pressed on  human  consciousness. 

The  term  reality  is  used  in  psychology  to  desig- 
nate impressions  made  on  the  mind  or  on  the  nerve 
center  by  the  impact  of  an  external  stimulus.  A 
reality  in  the  mind  has  its  origin  in  an  actual  object 
or  influence  outside  the  nerve  center  or  sensorium 
receiving  it.  It  is  an  objective  impression  as  dis- 
tinguished from  a  subjective  condition.  Subjective 
impressions,  that  is,  appearance  of  reality  seen  by 
the  "  mind's  eye  "  only,  may  be  illusions.  An  illu- 
sion is  at  bottom  usually  a  fading  memory.  It  is  a 
continuance  of  a  reality  in  the  nerve  center,  after 
the  source  of  the  reality  has  passed  away.  An  in- 
correct interpretation  of  an  actual  reality  is  known 
as  a  delusion. 

Illusions  aside,  the  normal  impression  made  by  a 
normal  stimulus  on  a  normal  mind  is  a  reality.  A 
reality  within  measures  a  truth  outside. 

The  degree  of  correspondence  or  of  correlation 
between  a  reality  of  our  minds  and  the  actualities 
of  the  thing  in  itself  ("  das  Ding  an  sich,"  whatever 
that  may  be)  is  our  measure  of  truth.  That  our 
"  realities  "  or  impressions  of  external  things  have 


6  Reality  and  Science 

a  degree  of  objective  truth  is  shown  by  their  co- 
incidence with  impressions  derived  second-hand 
from  scientific  instruments  of  precision.  Thus  the 
camera,  a  chemico-mechanical  eye,  devised  by  man, 
reproduces  forms  as  shown  by  reflection  of  light. 
From  the  photograph  properly  adjusted  we  can  re- 
ceive nerve  impressions  or  new  realities  virtually 
identical  with  those  we  derive  from  the  thing  by  it- 
self. In  the  same  fashion  the  phonograph,  a  me- 
chanical ear,  records  sound  vibrations  just  as  the 
ear  does.  These  vibrations  given  out  second-hand 
are  indistinguishable  from  the  original,  except 
through  the  imperfection  of  the  materials  used  in 
recording,  as  compared  with  the  ear-drum  itself. 
These  instruments  show  not  only  that  the  objects 
about  us  maintain  a  constancy  of  behavior  in  rela- 
tion to  us  and  to  our  mechanical  devices,  but  that 
they  influence  our  devices  in  some  degree  in  the  same 
fashion  in  which  they  influence  us.  The  common 
element  in  these  processes  is  an  element  of  actual 
truth.  When  a  truth  is  segregated  as  a  proposition 
it  must  be  stated  in  terms  of  human  experience.  It 
is  often  claimed  that  the  real  nature  of  the  thing  in 
itself  is  so  distant  from  our  experiences,  so  abso- 
lutely inscrutable,  incomprehensible,  and  unknow- 
able, that  we  can  have  no  truth  whatever  in  regard 
to  it.  All  we  have  is  our  impression  of  certain  ef- 
fects on  our  consciousness.  We  assume,  without 
real  proof,  it  is  said,  that  our  various  sensations 
are  transcripts  of  any  actuality  whatever,  and, 


Reality  and  Science  7 

furthermore,  that  we  do  not  know  that  our  sense- 
impressions  accord  in  any  degree  with  impressions 
which  may  be  made  on  other  types  of  consciousness. 
It  is  further  asserted  that  our  own  sense-impressions, 
whatever  they  may  be,  are  in  every  case  vitiated  (or 
vitalized)  by  personal  and  individual  habits  of  in- 
ference and  reasoning.  All  these  qualities  of  per- 
sonality, it  is  claimed,  lead  us,  if  possible,  still 
further  from  the  actual  character  of  the  actual 
thing  in  itself. 

The  answer  to  this  is  found  in  that  fact  that 
men  and  animals  are  guided  by  their  realities. 
They  live  by  truth.  That  they  move  safely  implies 
safe  guidance,  the  power  to  "  size  up  the  situation  " 
about  them  with  substantial  accuracy,  so  far  as  it 
concerns  themselves.  Were  it  not  for  this  power 
the  race  of  men  could  never  have  maintained  itself. 
^  The  sense-organs  of  every  animal  are  so  constructed 
that  its  realities  are  adequate  to  its  needs.  The  need 
is  not  that  of  a  "  copy  or  transcript  of  nature,  but  ac- 
curacy as  prompting  fruitful  attack  or  exploitation." 
For  the  truth  in  dealing  with  external  things  is  not 
primarily  knowledge  of  the  things  themselves,  but 
rather  of  their  relation  to  each  other  and  to  us.  Ef- 
fective action  depends  on  ability  to  "  size  up  a  situ- 
ation." It  is  the  situation  or  correlation  of  objects 
which  impresses  us  rather  than  the  things  in  them- 
selves. 

The  nervous  system  arose,  in  the  first  place,  as  a 
necessity  in  relation  to  the  power  of  locomotion. 


8  Reality^  and  Science 

To  move  from  place  to  place  makes  direction  of  mo- 
tion a  vital  need.  This  direction  is  given  through 
the  nervous  system.  The  most  distinctive  trait  of 
the  animal  kingdom  is  its  power  to  move.  Its  most 
distinctive  group  of  organs  is  the  nerve-system.  The 
functions  of  the  nervous  system  collectively  consti- 
tute the  Mind,  using  that  term  in  the  large  sense. 
If  animals  are  to  move  about,  they  must  move 
about  safely  and  surely.  Their  senses  give  safety, 
for  they  give  truth ;  not  absolute  nor  ultimate  truth, 
nor  truth  of  some  unknown  category,  but  such  de- 
gree of  reality  as  is  necessary  for  the  preservation 
and  development  of  life. 

Humanly  speaking,  and  there  is  no  other  way  for 
us  to  try  to  speak,  there  is  no  absolute  truth.  That 
is,  we  have  no  truth  that  is  true  from  all  standpoints 
at  once,  nor  from  a  general  standpoint  at  large,  a 
standpoint  which  is  not  that  of  any  particular  per- 
son, place,  or  time.  That  which  I  now  hold  to  be 
true  about  any  given  thing  does  not  pretend  to  be  a 
full  copy  of  reality,  nor  to  be  logically  harmonizable 
with  all  truth,  present  or  to  come.  It  claims,  or  I 
may  claim  for  it,  that  if,  as  I  understand  it,  it  be 
acted  upon,  it  will  be  followed  by  the  results  which 
I  expect.  To  say  that  a  certain  proposition  is  true 
to  me  does  not  affirm  that  it  is  true  from  an 
imaginary  standpoint  of  absolute  truth,  nor  does  it 
involve  an  imaginary  or  absolute  completeness  of 
knowledge. 

In  the  human  race  more  truth  is  demanded  than 


Reality  and  Science  9 

with  the  lower  animals,  because  man's  powers  of 
motion  and  locomotion  are  far  more  diversified. 
Man  needs  truth  better  defined  as  well  as  truths  of 
a  higher  order  than  those  which  suffice  for  the  needs 
of  other  animals.  These  new  truths  must  answer  to 
the  new  interests  expressed  through  his  more  varied 
powers  of  action.  He  must  have  more  wide-reach- 
ing correspondence  between  his  impressions  of  the 
environment  and  the  environment  itself  as  it  exists 
in  relation  to  him.  These  impressions  and  conjec- 
tures, the  collective  experience  of  many  men  tested 
and  set  in  order,  constitute  science.  With  the  ad- 
vance of  science  man  has  invented  an  immense  vari- 
ety of  devices,  instruments  of  precision,  by  which 
impressions  too  subtle  for  the  ordinary  senses  may, 
with  relative  accuracy,  be  also  tested,  measured,  and 
set  in  order.  It  is  by  means  of  experience,  personal 
and  collective,  that  the  human  race  maintains  itself 
on  the  earth.  The  experience  concerns  itself  chiefly 
with  the  relations  of  objects,  rather  than  with  their 
ultimate  constitution  or  their  intimate  nature.  It 
gives  the  truth  actually  needed  in  actual  life,  and  it 
furnishes  the  means  for  the  acquisition  of  more  com- 
plete conceptions  whenever  in  the  intricacies  of  life 
such  better  knowledge  is  needed.  That  we  do  not 
know  the  chemical  composition  of  a  rock  or  a  jewel 
in  no  wise  prevents  us  from  using  the  one  as  a 
weapon,  the  other  as  an  ornament.  If  we  are 
dealing  with  an  object  as  such,  a  drug  or  an  ore, 
for  example,  the  chemical  composition  may  be  all- 


io  Reality  and  Science 

important.  The  experience  of  the  race  gives  us  the 
means  of  finding  out  this  composition.  But  the  fact 
that  we  may  not  know  the  chemical  composition  of  a 
rock  does  not  in  any  degree  darken  or  impeach  such 
knowledge  of  it  as  we  already  have.  It  does  not 
challenge  its  fitness  for  the  particular  use  for  which 
we  have  chosen  it.  The  fact  that  we  have  no  abso- 
lutely complete  knowledge  of  anything  does  not 
demonstrate  the  unreality  of  external  things.  It 
does  not  even  throw  doubt  on  any  part  of  the  actual 
knowledge  we  possess.  We  may  see  one  side  of  a 
mountain  peak.  We  may  become  familiar  with  its 
ridges  and  valleys  and  all  the  details  of  its  surface 
without  knowing  what  minerals  may  be  concealed 
within,  or  what  forms  the  other  side  of  the  peak 
may  assume.  We  may  not  know  whether  it  is 
really  a  peak  or  the  end  of  a  long  ridge.  And  the 
acquisition  of  this  additional  knowledge  would  give 
us  no  clearer  vision  of  the  part  we  see.  Conversely, 
the  absence  of  further  knowledge  does  not  darken 
the  actual  outlook.  We  know  what  we  know;  it  is 
truth  so  far  as  it  goes.  We  may  safely  trust  it  so 
far  as  our  knowledge  reaches.  The  knowledge  we 
possess  is  not  knowledge  of  the  object  "  at  large," 
but  of  the  object  in  its  relations  to  us. 

Our  view  of  the  mountain  may  be  wholly  ade- 
quate if  we  mean  merely  to  climb  its  side.  If  we 
wish  to  exploit  its  recesses  for  gold  ore,  we  must 
seek  further  truth,  and  by  the  recognized  processes 
of  science.  We  must  have  had  experience  with  the 


Reality  and  Science  11 

indications  of  gold  deposits,  or  we  must  seek  the 
services  of  some  one  who  has  had  or  has  collated 
the  results  of  such  experience. 

The  power  to  sum  up  the  truth  arising  from 
ordinary  sense-impressions  derived  from  realities 
we  call  common  sense.  Science  involves  common 
sense,  but  its  operations  are  continued  beyond  the 
obvious  into  the  hidden  complexities  of  truth.  By 
a  knowledge  of  these  complexities  endeavors  sim- 
ilarly complex  may  be  carried  out  with  success.  Such 
success,  other  things  being  equal,  is  in  proportion 
to  the  exactness  of  our  knowledge,  the  degree  in 
which  our  conceptions  are  transcripts  of  reality,  and 
the  courage  with  which  we  use  our  knowledge  in 
our  actual  operations. 

The  final  test  of  truth  is,  then,  its  "  livableness," 
the  degree  to  which  we  may  trust  our  lives  to  it. 
Just  as  we  may  trust  our  lives  so  can  we  trust  that 
for  which  life  is  valuable,  our  aims,  purposes,  and 
hopes  singly,  one  by  one,  or  grouped  together  in  sys- 
tems. Livableness  seems  to  represent  our  final  test 
rather  than  "  workableness,"  the  word  more  often 
used  in  this  connection.  An  idea  may  be  "  work- 
able "  because  the  people  concerned  are  willing  to 
try  to  use  it  in  their  work.  That  people  are  willing 
to  accept  it  as  a  basis  for  action  is  not  proof  that 
the  conception  itself  is  true.  That  one  man  or  ten 
thousand  or  ten  million  men  find  a  dogma  acceptable 
does  not  argue  for  its  soundness  unless  these  men 
have  one  and  all  successfully  translated  it  into  ac- 


12  Reality  and  Science 

tion.  If  it  cannot  be  tested  by  action  in  some 
fashion  or  other,  it  is  not  a  truth.  A  truth,  to  be 
our  truth,  must  have  some  relation  to  experiment, 
some  relevance  in  human  affairs.  A  vast  propor- 
tion, probably  a  majority  of  the  Aryan  race,  accepts 
the  doctrine  of  Reincarnation.  It  is  a  doctrine 
which  can  in  no  way  be  tested  by  action  or  worked 
out  in  terms  of  endeavor.  In  so  far  as  science  or  co- 
ordinated human  experience  can  touch  it,  it  can  make 
no  use  of  it.  That  you  or  I  or  a  hundred  millions 
of  men  in  India  find  it  satisfying  or  acceptable  or 
apparently  "  workable  "  is  no  argument  in  its  favor. 
It  has  no  standing  in  the  court  of  realities,  as  it 
rests  on  no  phase  of  human  experience. 

If  a  doctrine  is  livable  we  can  trust  our  lives  to  it. 
This  involves  the  idea  of  personal  safety  or  of  race 
security.  It  may  not  be  at  once  applied  to  any  given 
proposition.  It  may  be  applied  to  the  process  by 
which  our  knowledge  is  gained,  as  well  as  to  the 
proposition  itself.  This  is  the  final  test,  the  test  of 
the  long  run,  for  no  doctrine  can  find  its  full  test 
in  the  lifetime  of  an  individual.  If  it  is  true,  one 
man,  or  generation  of  men,  can  depend  upon  it,  or 
upon  the  methods  by  which  the  doctrine  is  developed. 
We  do  not  yet  know  what  electricity  really  is.  We 
have  large  experience  in  what  it  will  do,  and  in 
the  changing  relations  of  objects  produced  by 
changes  in  electrical  conditions.  This  knowledge 
tested  and  set  in  order  constitutes  electrical  science. 
To  this  we  trust  our  lives  every  day,  those  of  us 


Reality  and  Science  13 

who  travel  by  rail  at  the  mercy  of  the  block  system 
and  the  train  despatches  If  this  knowledge  were 
not  true  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  so  far  as  it  concerns 
us,  the  error  involved  in  it  would  prove  fatal,  not  at 
once  necessarily,  nor  to  all  of  us,  but  in  the  long 
run  to  the  race,  to  all  who  trust  to  the  methods  by 
which  this  knowledge  was  obtained.  This  error 
might  not  involve  actual  race  extinction,  at  least  not 
within  an  appreciable  time.  But  it  would  involve 
destruction  in  proportion  to  the  importance  of  the 
error.  For  the  rest  we  might  expect  that  life  would 
be  on  a  lower  plane  than  would  be  possible  with 
more  exact  knowledge  and  the  courage  and  intellect 
to  make  use  of  it. 

In  no  field  has  science  yet  reached  finality.  It  sees 
some  things  very  clearly,  but  the  unknown  lies  about 
on  every  side,  a  trackless  wilderness  yet  to  be  cleared 
and  fitted  for  human  habitation. 

To  some  philosophers,  this  vastness  of  the  un- 
known is  a  matter  for  despair  rather  than  hope. 
There  is  so  much  unknown,  so  much  outside  of 
human  experience,  that  our  acquisition  and  en- 
deavor count  as  next  to  nothing,  while  for  ultimate 
truth  of  any  sort  we  must  appeal  to  some  other 
source  of  knowledge.  It  is  claimed  that  our  sense- 
impressions,  the  realities  of  psychology,  are  in- 
infinitely  removed  from  the  actuality  of  the  thing 
in  itself.  Being  infinitely  remote,  they  give  us  no 
conception  of  any  real  thing.  At  the  most,  and 
that  is  not  much,  we  have  only  impression  of  rela- 


14  Reality  and  Science 

tions,  perception  of  changes,  the  flight  of  shadows  in 
environment,  and  that  therefore,  from  fact  and  na- 
ture, "  we  know  not  anything,"  "  we  only  trust," 
and,  so  far  as  the  external  world  is  concerned,  we 
must  let  it  go  at  that.  Only  the  seer  can  know  the 
truth,  and  for  this  he  must  look  within,  and  within 
only. 

To  this  we  oppose  our  robust  common  sense,  the 
everyday  experience  of  any  man  who  tries  to  do 
anything.  He  finds  his  efforts  effective  in  propor- 
tion to  his  own  trust  in  realities,  and  in  proportion 
to  his  own  efforts  to  make  use  of  the  experience  of 
his  race.  Knowledge  is  power.  That  is,  knowl- 
edge enables  effort  to  become  effectiveness.  We  may 
know  but  little,  but  that  little  may  be  exact.  The 
safety  and  the  success  of  our  efforts  attest  the  clear- 
ness of  our  knowledge,  so  far  as  it  goes. 

An  apple  is  a  very  familiar  object.  It  is  one 
of  the  things  which  we  know  with  considerable  ac- 
curacy and  fullness  of  detail.  That  is  what  we  mean 
by  calling  it  familiar.  Much  effort  has  been  ex- 
pended to  find  out  what  constitutes  the  apple  after 
we  have,  in  our  minds,  removed  all  its  attributes. 
What  is  left  after  the  redness,  sourness,  size,  weight, 
substance  of  the  apple  have  one  by  one  been  taken 
away?  Naturally  only  the  apple  is  left.  But  what 
is  the  apple  without  these  attributes?  Only  the  at- 
tributes appeal  to  normal  human  experience.  The 
apple  in  itself  is  nothing  more  than  these  experi- 
ences, with  the  addition  of  possible  appeals  to  other 


Reality  and  Science  15 

experiences  less  tangible  than  these.  We  can  never 
know  the  complete  truth  about  the  apple,  but  what 
we  do  know  may  be  just  as  real,  just  as  true,  as 
though  we  knew  it  all.  It  is  the  truth  as  far  as  it 
goes,  and  the  truth,  man-truth,  in  our  possession, 
is  just  as  true  as  though  it  were  God's  truth,  which, 
indeed,  it  is  as  well. 

Our  sense  of  vision  shows  us  the  moon.  We 
recognize  its  form,  the  Noutlines  of  its  shadowed 
districts,  its  luster  as  illumined  by  the  sun.  All  this 
is  true  so  far  as  it  goes,  just  as  true  as  though  we 
were  able  to  touch  it,  to  see  its  hidden  further 
hemisphere,  or  to  look  down  into  the  craters  of  its 
volcanoes.  To  do  these  things  would  add  knowl- 
edge. It  would  not  change  its  nature.  What  we 
have  is  truth ;  the  rest  is  merely  the  truth  we  do  not 
have,  and  which,  may  be,  we  do  not  want.  Too 
much  truth,  more  than  we  can  assimilate,  may  con- 
fuse action  or  render  it  abortive.  We  cannot  use 
truth  much  before  we  are  to  ask  for  it.  To  utilize 
it  we  must  assimilate  it  with  the  truth  already  held. 
We  must  conceive  it  in  terms  of  our  experience. 
With  scientific  methods,  tested  and  verified  by  human 
experience,  we  may  determine  the  size  of  the  moon, 
knowing  the  length  of  two  sides  and  the  size  of  the 
included  angle.  Or,  knowing  two  angles  and  the 
length  of  the  included  side,  we  may  determine  its 
distance  from  the  earth.  Or,  with  the  instruments 
of  science,  we  may  gaze  into  its  craters  and  calculate 
the  height  of  its  crests  from  the  shadows  thrown 


16  Reality  and  Science 

by  the  sunlight  which  strikes  them  on  the  edge. 
All  this  and  everything  else  which  the  astronomer 
can  teach  of  moon  and  star,  so  long  as  it  rests  on 
human  experience  and  is  adequately  tested  and  set 
in  order,  is  truth.  It  is  not  the  whole  truth,  for 
human  experience  works  at  long  range,  with  the 
smallest  as  well  as  the  greatest  of  objects,  but  it  is 
truth  so  far  as  it  goes.  Each  truth  we  attain  sug- 
gests the  existence  of  other  truths,  more  or  less 
susceptible  of  being  tested.  There  are  always 
groups  of  realities  not  perfectly  defined.  Such 
truths  may  belong  to  that  fringe  or  penumbra  of 
science  in  which  science  merges  into  philosophy. 

The  men  who  do  things  have  known  what  they 
are  doing.  Men  must  have  sized  up  a  complex  situ- 
ation pretty  well  to  have  laid  the  Atlantic  cable,  to 
have  painted  the  "  Last  Supper,"  to  have  drawn  up 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  to  have  spoken  the 
"  Lord's  Prayer."  The  chemist-biologist,  with  the 
infinitely  little,  or  the  astronomer,  with  the  infinitely 
vast,  the  engineer,  with  his  forces  and  resistances, 
the  statesman,  with  his  millions  of  individual  units; 
all  these  are  in  a  degree  masters  of  their  environ- 
ment, else  they  could  not  be  masterful  in  dealing 
with  it.  Science  is  power,  because  power  depends 
on  knowledge.  But  science  is  power  to  the  degree 
that  it  is  truth,  to  the  extent  that  it  represents  an  ef- 
fective co-ordination  of  the  results  of  genuine 
human  experience. 

The  present  writer  just  now  is  dealing,  or  thinks 


Reality  and  Science  17 

that  he  is  dealing,  with  the  statutes  which  govern 
fishing  in  the  international  boundary  waters  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  He  thinks  that  it  is  true 
that  he  exists  ("I  think,  therefore  I  am"),  and 
that  he  is  the  representative  in  this  matter  of  eighty 
millions  or  more  of  similar  individuals  or  mental 
and  physical  units,  in  a  nation  called  the  United 
States.  He  has  never  counted  these  units,  but  he 
thinks  that  he  has  met  many  of  them,  and  he  takes 
the  work  of  some  of  them,  as  recorded  by  printed 
signs,  for  the  rest.  As  to  the  nation  called  the 
United  States,  he  thinks  that  he  has  seen  much  of  it, 
and  that  he  can  imagine  the  rest.  The  parts  of  it  as 
seen  by  his  neighbors  seem  to  impress  them  much 
as  they  do  him.  For  all  practical  purposes  he  finds 
he  can  trust  their  statements.  It  is  workable  to  do 
so.  Or,  at  least,  it  seems  to  seem  so  to  him.  He 
thinks  that  he  has  traveled  the  long  extent  of  this 
long  boundary,  and  all  the  way  he  thinks  he  finds 
people  whose  impression  of  every  detail  coincides,  so 
far  as  he  can  determine,  substantially  with  his  own. 
He  can  guide  himself  along  the  road  by  the  maps 
they  have  published.  He  can  time  himself  by  the 
time-tables  of  their  railways  and  steamships,  and  he 
veritably  believes  that  his  ideas  of  these  railways 
and  steamships,  being  substantially  those  of  their 
builders,  are  fairly  near  the  truth.  He  does  not  see 
how,  for  any  practical  purpose,  any  one  could  get 
from  these  machines  any  important  truth  which  was 
unknown  to  the  men  who  planned  and  built  them. 


1 8  Reality  and  Science 

In  like  fashion  he  thinks  that  he  knows  that  the 
Great  Lakes  exist,  that  Lake  Superior  is  the  largest 
and  Lake  Erie  the  richest  in  life.  He  thinks  that 
he  knows  something  of  why  this  is  so.  He  deals 
with  what  he  and  most  men  regard  as  fishes,  useful 
to  man  because  men  suppose  that  they  can  use  them 
as  food.  These  fishes  have  each  individually  an  ana- 
tomical structure,  with  what  seems  to  be  complex 
physiological  action.  Of  these  fishes  he  thinks,  and 
his  associates  agree  with  him,  there  are  many  kinds 
in  these  lakes,  those  of  each  kind  varying  some- 
what, but  substantially  alike,  and  those  of  all  the 
kinds  having  much  in  common  also,  but  separated 
by  differences  of  varying  grade.  With  all  this,  he 
has  to  deal,  or  thinks  he  does,  with  corporations  and 
fishermen,  with  canoes  and  steamtugs,  with  nets  and 
hooks,  with  cities  and  forests,  with  seasons  and  tem- 
peratures and  rocks  and  ice  and  mud  and  gravel, 
with  swift  current  and  slack  water,  with  custom 
and  statute,  with  law  and  prejudice,  with  warden 
and  marshal,  inspector  and  policeman,  with  human 
tendencies  to  honesty  and  fair  play,  and  human 
tendencies  to  treachery  and  deceit.  Furthermore, 
he  has,  or  thinks  he  has,  the  temerity,  with  his  Brit- 
ish colleague,  to  reduce  all  this  to  order  by  means 
of  sixty-six  regulations  or  statutes,  to  be  enforced 
by  certain  governmental  methods,  with  a  reasonable 
prospect  that  these  statutes  may  satisfy  fishes  and 
fishermen  and  all  else  concerned. 

The  point  of  all  this  is  that  if  there  were  not 


Reality  and  Science  19 

real  truth  involved  in  these  matters,  this  work  could 
not  be  done.  Not  necessarily  the  whole  truth  re- 
garding any  individual  object,  but  the  essential 
truth  in  regard  to  its  reciprocal  relations  and  its  re- 
lations to  me.  I  have  to  "  size  up  the  situation  " 
correctly  so  far  as  the  process  goes,  though  I  may 
not  try  to  complete  the  truth  as  regards  a  man,  a 
fish,  or  a  nation,  a  gasolene-launch,  or  anything  in 
itself.  But  if,  after  doing  this  work,  one  came  no 
nearer  to  the  thing  in  itself  than  the  man  who  never 
heard  of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  could  not  tell  a  net 
from  a  sonnet,  then  we  should  be  forced  to  admit 
that  psychological  realities  do  not  parallel  truth  nor 
copy  it,  nor  transcribe  it,  nor  approximate  it,  nor 
have  anything  to  do  with  it.  The  test  in  this  case 
is  for  some  one  to  try  it.  Similar  experiments  have 
been  tried  millions  of  times.  There  is  always  the 
one  answer.  Knowledge  is  power.  Power  is  the 
evidence  that  our  belief  is  knowledge.  Efficiency 
in  all  things  is  the  resultant  of  knowledge  and 
training,  with  the  addition  of  the  motive  attribute 
of  courage.  Knowledge  is  significant  or  livable 
truth.  It  is  in  working  relations  with  reality.  It 
has  "  an  effective  purchase  upon  reality,"  whatever 
that  may  be.  In  proportion  as  it  is  effective  in  en- 
deavor, our  impression  of  anything  about  us  bears 
a  definite  relation  to  the  real  nature  of  the  thing  in 
itself. 

Knowledge  in  turn  is  verified  by  action.     Using 
the  Boundary  fisheries  again  as  an  illustration  we 


2O  Reality  and  Science 

may  make  this  statement.  To  deny  the  effective  co- 
incidence of  my  mind-pictures  with  the  facts  con- 
cerned, would  be  to  assert  that  as  a  dream-picture 
my  mind  had  been  able  to  frame  the  Great  Lakes, 
the  science  of  ichthyology,  the  art  of  fish  culture, 
the  idea  of  law,  the  geography  of  Canada  and  the 
United  States,  with  the  history  of  both  and  all  other 
nations.  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  Edward  VII  fig- 
ure in  the  accompanying  warrants  and  documents, 
and  if  these  are  not  real  in  this  sense,  they  are  equally 
unreal  in  any  other,  for  I  have  only  the  same  type 
of  sense-evidence  in  either  case.  Besides,  it  is  a 
well-attested  fact  of  psychology  that  dream-pictures 
or  subjective  impressions  are  only  memory  duplica- 
tions of  past  realities.  Nothing  originates  de  novo 
in  the  land  of  dreams.  There  is  no  initiative  in 
subjective  imaginations.  Such  originality  as  these 
seem  to  show,  is  due  to  their  interconfusion  or  tele- 
scoping. The  materials  are  never  new.  They  are 
shadows  from  the  past,  not  beginnings  of  the  future. 
Another  conceivable  point  of  view  would  be  that 
instead  of  having  imagined  the  Great  Lakes  and 
the  boundary  problems  from  Grand  Manan  to  Ta- 
toosh  Light,  I  had  merely  imagined  that  I  imagined 
them.  But  on  this  assumption  my  existence  as  an 
Ego  and  my  ability  to  know,  to  remember  or 
imagine,  would  be  at  the  same  time  impeached. 
The  only  tenable  theory  is  to  suppose  that  a  reality 
in  the  mind  matches  a  reality  in  the  Universe.  This 
reality  may  match  the  actuality  as  a  photograph 


Reality  and  Science  21 

matches  a  face,  or  else  as  a  key  matches  a  lock.  The 
two  may  be  identical,  or  they  may  be  adjustable  the 
one  to  the  other.  Perhaps  we  do  not  know  which 
of  these  two  illustrations  comes  nearest  the  truth, 
but  some  form  of  workable  correspondence  is  cer- 
tainly there.  In  either  case,  the  degree  of  such 
matching  is  measured  by  livability.  By  such  tests, 
the  methods  of  science  and  the  conclusions  of  sci- 
ence carry  us  progressively  nearer  to  truth.  We 
do  not  attain,  by  its  tests,  to  absolute  truth,  what- 
ever that  may  be,  but  the  truth  involved  in  clear 
perception  of  relations  among  its  constituent  ele- 
ments. Incomplete  truth,  more  or  less  faulty,  is  the 
beginning  of  new  truth,  and  this  again  is  a  starting- 
point  for  action. 

The  final  test  of  error  must  be  found  in  its  effect 
on  human  life.  Falsehood  must  kill  outright  if  we 
trust  our  life  wholly  to  it.  It  will  thwart  and  dis- 
appoint us  in  the  degree  in  which  we  rest  upon  it  our 
hope  or  endeavor.  When  a  proposition  is  found  to 
be  "  workable,"  it  is  not  of  necessity  completely  true, 
but  only  in  so  far  as  we  find  that  it  will  work.  The 
truth  in  any  doctrine  is  not  the  whole  of  it,  nor  in 
general  that  part  which  is  deemed  essential  by  its 
upholders.  In  the  methods  of  science  lie  our  sole 
means  of  separating  truth  from  error,  and  of  identi- 
fying the  relations  of  cause  and  effect  on  which 
actual  livableness  must  depend. 

Ninety-nine  per  cent,  of  a  doctrine  or  a  dogma 
may  be  absolutely  false,  and  yet  the  whole  may  be 


22  Reality  and  Science 

for  a  time  livable,  and  therefore  to  the  same  ex- 
tent true.  Many  a  great  movement  has  lived 
through  the  single  unnoticed  germ  of  truth,  en- 
veloped in  shining  robes  of  error.  In  the  body  of 
doctrines  recently  brought  together  under  the  name 
of  Christian  Science,  there  is  much  that  is  workable, 
else  it  would  not  work ;  much  that  is  livable,  else  its 
followers  would  not  live.  Neurotic  weakness  finds 
a  balm  in  turning  from  its  own  troubles  and  limita- 
tions. In  a  degree,  it  is  our  privilege  to  heal  our- 
selves by  changing  our  own  mental  attitude,  the 
cause  of  our  trouble  remaining  unchanged.  But  all 
this,  admitting  its  accuracy,  does  not  render  valid 
the  philosophic  principle  on  which  these  doctrines  are 
alleged  to  rest,  namely,  that  external  things  which 
may  cause,  or  seem  to  cause,  illness,  harm,  or  misery, 
have  no  real  existence.  It  does  not,  for  example, 
tend  to  prove  the  claim  that  "  cutting  the  jugular 
vein  will  not  cause  death,  because  there  is  no  jugular 
vein."  It  does  not  show  that  contagious  diseases 
associated  with  the  presence  of  micro-organisms 
have  no  real  existence,  but  are  mere  phantasms  of 
unwholesome  "  mortal  mind." 

The  scanty  records  of  the  words  of  Jesus  recorded 
in  the  four  Gospels  have  furnished  the  living  inspi- 
ration of  a  hundred  churches  of  a  thousand  creeds. 
And  these  have  justified  themselves  by  the  truth 
that  is  in  them,  not  by  the  forms  and  ceremonies, 
the  pomp  and  circumstance,  by  which  this  truth  has 
been  obscured  and  confused.  When  the  truth  is 


Reality  and  Science  23 

grasped  and  woven  into  action,  the  rest  is  valueless, 
however  imposing  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  In  the 
conduct  of  life,  only  truth  survives. 

An  error  may  be  harmless  if  we  do  not  act  upon 
it.  Our  everyday  judgments  of  immaterial  things 
are  constantly  hazy  with  misconceptions.  The  real 
nature  of  an  object  concerns  us  very  little  if  it  does 
npt  control  our  action.  The  things  we  see  may  be  a 
squash  or  a  goblin,  a  granite  bowlder,  or  a  whiff 
of  vapor;  it  is  all  the  same  to  us  if  we  let  it  alone. 
The  moment  we  enter  into  relations  with  it,  its  real 
nature  becomes  a  vital  matter.  If  it  be  a  squash  or 
a  bowlder  in  one  relation,  then  bowlder  or  squash 
it  is  in  all  its  relations.  If  we  view  the  squash  as 
something  essentially  different  from  what  it  is, 
as,  for  example,  the  head  of  a  phantom  horseman, 
the  error  involved  may  extend  to  other  relations  in 
life.  If  we  do  not  recognize  the  truth  in  things 
which  are  nearest,  we  shall  be  deceived  in  remoter 
things.  We  shall  see  portents  in  comets,  and  shall 
overlook  the  reasons  for  sanitation.  Poisons  will 
seem  as  foods,  and  foods  as  poisons.  The  whole 
accuracy  and  sanity  of  life  becomes  impaired.  Se- 
curity of  action  is  always  conditioned  on  the  preci- 
sion with  which  we  size  up  our  relation  to  external 
things,  and  on  the  correctness  with  which  we  rea- 
son from  the  evidence  of  our  senses. 

Science  is  the  gathered  wisdom  of  the  human  race 
in  regard  to  sense-perceptions.  It  is  collective,  not 
individual.  Only  a  part  of  it  can  be  grasped  by 


24  Reality  and  Science 

any  one  man.  The  individual  can  be  imbued  more  or 
less  with  its  spirit,  and  can  add  his  own  experience 
to  the  mass.  At  the  most,  this  single  addition  can 
be  but  little,  and  in  but  few  directions.  Only  a 
fraction  of  possible  knowledge  can  come  to  all 
men.  But  the  little  that  an  individual  man  can 
really  know  is  true  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  is  as  true  as 
the  truest  thing  in  the  universe.  The  more  this 
truth  enters  into  the  conduct  of  life,  the  greater  the 
need  for  more  truth.  The  same  conduct  of  life  de- 
mands greater  and  greater  wisdom.  Wisdom,  as  I 
have  elsewhere  said,  is  knowing  what  one  ought  to 
do  next.  Virtue  is  doing  it.  Wisdom  and  virtue 
react  on  each  other,  and  each  one  creates  a  greater 
demand  for  the  'other,  a  greater  demand  for  truth  in 
knowledge  and  for  truth  in  action. 

Religion  is  fundamentally  the  warrant  for  wisdom 
and  for  virtue.  There  must  be  some  reason  why 
the  thing  to  be  done  next  should  be  attempted  rather 
than  something  else.  Every  form  of  religion  the 
world  has  known  has  addressed  itself  in  some 
fashion  to  this  problem.  As  those  lines  of  conduct 
which  make  for  life  and  strength  have  in  them  the 
elements  of  survival,  so  the  religions  of  the  world 
have  in  the  main  cast  their  might  on  the  side  of 
righteousness.  This  much  of  truth  they  have  had, 
that  continued  leadership  implies  a  degree  of  wis- 
dom, and  wisdom  rests  on  a  workable  knowledge  of 
realities. 

As  existence  grows  more  complex,  the  more  in- 


Reality  and  Science  25 

sistent  is  the  need  of  greater  precision  in  our  knowl- 
edge of  ourselves  and  of  the  material  world  in  which 
we  move,  as  well  as  of  invisible  forces  and  tendencies 
by  which  the  various  elements  in  our  universe  are 
related. 

The  greater  our  effort,  the  more  insistent  become 
the  limiting  conditions.  One  element  of  power  is 
to  know  its  limitations.  The  exercise  of  power  de- 
mands constantly  new  accessions  of  truth  as  to  our 
environment,  and  more  exact  definitions  of  the 
truth  already  partly  gained. 

"  True  ideas,"  William  James  tells  us,  "  are  those 
that  we  can  assimilate,  validate,  corroborate,  and 
verify.  False  ideas  are  those  that  we  cannot." 
"  Truth  lives,  in  fact,  for  the  most  part,  on  a  credit 
system.  Our  thoughts  and  beliefs  '  pass  '  so  long 
as  nothing  challenges  them,  just  as  banknotes  pass 
so  long  as  nobody  refuses  them.  But  this  all  points 
to  direct,  face-to- face  verifications  somewhere,  with- 
out which  the  fabric  of  truth  collapses  like  a  financial 
system  with  no  cash  basis  whatever.  You  accept 
my  verification  of  one  thing,  I  yours  of  another. 
We  trade  on  each  other's  truth.  But  beliefs,  veri- 
fied concretely  by  somebody,  are  the  posts  of  the 
whole  superstructure."  Our  expression  of  these 
laws  is,  as  Professor  James  observes,  not  absolutely 
a  transcript  of  reality,  but  a  convenient  summary  of 
old  facts  which  may  lead  us  to  new  ones.  Our 
theories  are  "  only  a  man-made  language,  a  concep- 
tual shorthand,  as  some  one  calls  them,  in  which  we 


26  Reality  and  Science 

write  our  reports  of  nature,  and  languages,  as  is 
well  known,  tolerate  much  choice  of  expression  and 
many  dialects." 

Truth  gives  safety.  Whether  it  gives  us  rest  or 
comfort  or  satisfaction  depends  on  other  matters. 
That  an  idea  is  agreeable,  is  no  evidence  as  to  its 
truth.  Truth  is  under  no  obligation  to  be  palatable. 

We  may  again  refer  to  the  claim  that  the  methods 
of  science  do  not  and  cannot  give  us  absolute  truth. 
This  is,  of  course,  true.  Our  record  of  truth  is  in 
human  experience,  and  this  record  is  again  a  re- 
sponse to  something  real  and  actual  outside  our- 
selves. The  record  is  within  us;  the  impact  comes 
from  without.  Balfour  tells  us  that  the  claim  that 
we  may  "  trust  in  the  infallibility  of  scientific  proc- 
esses has  no  higher  authority  than  the  claim  of  in- 
fallibility made  at  times  by  certain  religious  organi- 
zations. As  only  the  senses  and  the  reason  can  be 
appealed  to  in  support  of  the  claim  of  senses  and 
reason,  the  argument  of  science  is  of  necessity  rea- 
soning in  a  circle."  For  these  reasons,  it  is  claimed 
that  the  conclusions  of  science  should  take  a  sub- 
ordinate place,  as  against  the  absolute  truth  derived 
from  the  innate  ideas  which  rise  spontaneously  in 
the  human  mind. 

But  we  have  no  certain  knowledge  of  any  "  in- 
nate ideas,"  which  are  not  themselves  derived  from 
any  form  of  human  experience.  I  am  sure  that  I 
never  possessed  any.  When  a  religious  sentimental- 
ist came  to  Martin  Luther  with  the  claim  that  he 


Reality  and  Science  27 

was  guided  to  the  truth  by  an  "  Innern  Geist "  or 
spirit,  Luther  replied  bluntly,  "  Ihren  Geist  haue  Ich 
ueber  die  Schnautze  " — "  I  slap  your  spirit  on  the 
snout."  More  politely,  perhaps,  but  quite  as  firmly, 
the  modern  psychologist  refuses  to  consider  any 
purely  subjective  experience  as  the  source  of  valid 
truth. 

Innate  impulses  exist,  numerous  and  complex,  but 
an  impulse  or  tendency  to  action  is  not  an  idea. 
These  are  not  statements  of  fact,  but  formless  calls 
for  action.  So  far  as  we  understand  these  matters, 
innate  impulses  are  survivals  of  primitive  tendencies, 
"  inarticulate  demands  for  fact "  inherited  from 
generation  to  generation,  because  they  have  proved 
serviceable  as  calls  to  the  vital  deeds  of  life.  Such 
impulses  spurred  our  ancestors  to  necessary  acts. 
Self-defense,  hunger,  and  reproduction,  these  fur- 
nish the  source  of  the  primitive  motives.  Like 
other  forms  of  instinct,  these  impulses  do  not  point 
forward  to  truth,  but  backward  toward  necessity. 
Their  origin  is  in  a  past  need.  Their  survival  proves 
their  utility. 

It  is,  of  course,  true  that  human  experience  is 
never  actually  and  purely  objective.  It  is  colored 
by  the  medium  through  which  it  passes.  This  me- 
dium varies  with  the  infinite  variety  of  man.  "  My 
mind  to  me  a  kingdom  is,"  and  whatever  enters  that 
kingdom  must  take  its  hue  from  its  surroundings. 

We  may  farther  acknowledge  that  each  of  the 
senses  is  subject  to  illusions  of  its  own,  to  failure  to 


28  Reality  and  Science 

represent  phases  of  reality.  The  sensation  must 
also  run  the  gauntlet  of  delusion,  the  failure  on  the 
part  of  the  brain  or  the  mind  or  the  consciousness 
to  interpret  truthfully  what  the  sense-organs  faith- 
fully represent.  When  we  pass  beyond  the  usual 
range  of  experience,  such  failure  is  the  general  rule 
rather  than  the  exception;  while  inside  the  range  of 
experience,  memory-pictures  or  traces  of  past  im- 
pressions often  mingle  with  present  realities  to  the 
confusion  of  subjective  truth.  Thus,  as  Balfour  ob- 
serves, life  is  at  best  "  in  a  dimly-lighted  room." 
All  the  objects  about  us  are  in  some  respects  quite 
different  from  what  they  seem.  Their  content  as  a 
final  whole  is  unknown,  and,  perhaps,  unknowable. 
We  have  no  means  of  recognizing  all  possible  phases 
of  reality.  The  electric  condition  of  an  object  may 
be  as  real  as  its  color  or  its  temperature,  yet  none 
of  our  senses  respond  to  ordinary  variations  in  elec- 
trical conditions.  Our  eyes  give  but  an  octave  of 
the  vibrations  we  call  light,  and  our  ears  are  dull  to 
all  but  a  narrow  range  in  pitch  of  sound. 

But  here  again,  what  we  have  is  truth  so  far  as  it 
goes.  If  in  a  dimly-lighted  room  we  see  a  door,  we 
know  that  it  is  a  door  as  certainly  as  if  it  were  il- 
lumined by  a  calcium  light.  As  Professor  Stuart 
observes,  "  My  ignorance  of  the  electric  condition 
or  the  radio-active  condition  of  an  object  beyond  the 
scope  of  my  eyes  or  the  reach  of  my  hands,  does  not 
darken  the  fact  that  it  weighs  three  pounds  or  costs 
five  dollars.  It  does  not  darken  anything.  It  may 


Reality  and  Science  29 

be  itself  dark  whenever  I  need  to  know  or  wish  to 
know  anything  about  it." 

To  say  that  the  rose  is  red  to  us,  is  to  state  the 
actual  and  verifiable  truth,  if  by  the  statement  we 
mean  that  the  rays  of  light  which  come  to  our 
senses  reflected  from  the  rose  are  those  we  call  red 
rays.  But  it  may  be  that  in  another  sense  the  rose  as 
a  thing  in  itself — "  das  Ding  an  sich  " — is  not  red. 
Perhaps  it  is  really  green,  for  it  absorbs  the  blue 
and  yellow  rays  of  the  spectrum,  making  them  its 
own  in  an  intimate  sense.  On  the  same  premises, 
the  gold-orange  poppy  of  California  may  be  in  its 
actual  nature  royal  purple,  though  it  is  not  purple 
to  us.  The  reflected  rays  which  come  from  it  to 
us  form  a  chromatic  opposite  of  purple. 

We  do  not,  therefore,  know  the  inherent  color  of 
any  object,  if  it  has  any.  We  only  know  its  color 
as  it  appears  to  us.  And  this  appearance  is  our 
truth,  not  to  be  darkened  or  depreciated  by  our 
failure  to  obtain  some  other  kind  of  truth.  The 
scent  which  a  dog  follows  is  truth,  not  to  be  rated 
of  less  value  because  it  is  wholly  inappreciable  to 
human  senses,  even  inconceivable  to  the  human 
mind,  because  its  nature  cannot  be  expressed  in  terms 
of  our  previous  experience. 

Just  as  we  may  discredit  the  evidence  of  the 
senses,  so  may  we  depreciate  reason.  Reason  is  our 
way  of  disentangling  or  straightening  out  our  sense- 
perceptions,  and  their  relations  to  each  other  and 
to  ourselves. 


30  Reality  and  Science 

In  animals  "  sore  bestead  by  the  environment " 
reason  becomes  a  means  of  securing  safety  amid  in- 
creasing dangers.  It  is  primarily  the  power  to 
choose  among  possible  reflex  responses  to  external 
stimulus.  From  this  it  rises  to  the  power  to  trace 
relations  of  cause  and  effect.  Complexity  of  the 
nervous  structure  must  increase  with  complexity  of 
environment.  The  process  of  adaptation  through 
natural  selection  develops  reason  from  reflex  action. 
A  choice  among  responses  is  safer  than  a  single 
automatic  line  of  action.  Those  creatures  survive 
whose  senses  give  adequate  truth.  But  natural 
selection  gives  no  impulse  toward  complete  truth. 
It  provides  only  ability  to  secure  that  truth  an  ani- 
mal needs  for  its  own  safety,  and  the  safety  of  its 
progeny.  For  animal  or  man  there  is  no  provision 
for  complete  knowledge,  nor  for  infallible  reasoning. 
All  our  knowledge  is  slightly  mitigated  ignorance. 
But  to  mitigate  ignorance  is  to  acquire  truth. 

But  to  say  that  we  have  no  complete  knowledge  of 
anything  is  very  different  from  saying  that  we  know 
absolutely  nothing.  That  is  quite  another  proposi- 
tion. To  say  that,  when  viewed  "  in  the  critical 
light  of  philosophy,"  all  our  knowledge  becomes 
futile  and  meaningless,  is  to  talk  nonsense  in  large 

ords.  It  is  urged  by  Balfour  that  the  simple  af- 
firmation, "  The  sun  gives  light,"  loses  all  its  mean- 
ing and  passes  outside  the  range  of  possibility,  when 
it  is  taken  out  of  the  category  of  human  experience, 
and  discussed  in  terms  of  non-anthropomorphic 


Reality  and  Science  31 

philosophy.  The  sun  is  simply  an  unknown 
mass  of  matter,  if,  indeed,  it  be  a  mass, 
and  if  matter  really  exists.  It  can  give  nothing. 
It  certainly  cannot  give  light,  for  light  is  only 
a  mode  of  motion,  a  vibration  of  an  unknow- 
able and  impossible  ether.  At  the  best,  we  know 
light  only  by  its  apparent,  but  not  its  real,  effects. 
But  by  using  words  in  this  way,  any  fact  or  hap- 
pening can  be  made  to  appear  as  unreal  as  the  most 
fantastic  dream.  A  man  may  be  led  to  doubt  his 
own  existence,  and,  if  so,  the  existence  of  any  ob- 
ject within  his  environment.  We  may  take  the 
discussion  of  "  John's  John "  and  "  Thomas's 
John,"  as  given  by  Dr.  Holmes.  If  John  actually 
exists,  is  he  the  real  John  ?  Is  the  John  that  is,  the 
John  as  he  appears  to  John  himself?  Or  is  the 
John,  as  seen  by  Thomas,  the  real  John?  Or  is  he 
the  composite  of  the  different  Johns  as  seen  by  Rich- 
ard and  Henry,  each  one  with  a  varying  individu- 
ality, and  farther  and  farther  away  from  the  John 
that  John  thinks  that  he  knows?  Is  the  real  John 
simply  the  John  which  constitutes  the  common  ele- 
ment in  all  this?  Or  is  the  real  John  for  the  per- 
son speaking  or  thinking,  only  that  John  who  will 
"  substantiate  the  predictions  made  about  him  in  the 
sense  in  which  they  are  made  "  ?  Have  any  of  these 
Johns  an  objective  existence  to  the  exclusion  of  any 
of  the  others? 

All  that  we  know  of  the  external  universe  is 
drawn    from    impressions    made    directly    on    our 


32  Reality  and  Science 

nervous  system,  and  from  recorded  or  expressed  im- 
pressions made  on  the  systems  of  others.  These 
impressions  again  have  been  interpreted  in  terms 
of  our  own  experience,  and  we  ourselves  are  a  part 
of  this  external  universe  to  be  impressed  on  our- 
selves. All  that  we  know  of  ourselves  is  that  which 
is  external  to  our  own  consciousness.  Thus  each 
unit  of  human  consciousness  must  form  well  or  ill, 
broadly  or  narrowly,  a  universe  of  its  own.  If 
my  mind  is  my  kingdom,  this  kingdom  in  all  its 
parts  is  somewhat  different  from  any  other  mental 
universe.  It  is,  moreover,  constantly  changing.  It 
was  made  but  once,  and  it  will  never  be  duplicated. 
When  my  vital  processes  cease,  this  kingdom  will 
dissolve  "  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  dream,  leav- 
ing not  a  wrack  behind."  Our  minds  are  of  "  the 
stuff  that  dreams  are  made  of,"  and  our  bodies  are 
not  more  real — if,  indeed,  even  for  purposes  of 
philosophy,  we  may  separate  mind  from  body. 

Physically  each  man  is  an  alliance  of  zooids,  of 
energides,  of  centers  of  protoplasmic  action;  each 
so-called  cell,  or  energide,  a  sort  of  quasi-individ- 
ual organism;  each  member  of  this  alliance  hav- 
ing its  own  processes  of  life,  growth,  death,  and 
reproduction;  each  one  with  its  own  cell-soul, 
which  in  some  unknown  fashion  presides  over 
all  these  processes.  In  the  alliance  of  these 
cells  forming  tissues  and  organs,  we  have  the 
phenomena  of  mutual  help  and  mutual  depend- 
ence. We  have  these  also  in  the  phenomena  of 


Reality  and  Science  33 

human  society.  In  man  these  features  of  oTganic 
life  are  seen  on  a  larger  and  more  complex  scale 
than  in  the  lower  forms,  but  an  analysis  of  these 
phenomena  in  either  case  leaves  little  meaning  to 
the  word  "  self."  "  I  think,  therefore  I  am  "  gives 
place  to  "  we  think,  therefore  we  are."  But  that 
again  is  not  true ;  for  we  think  only  as  co-operating 
groups  of  centers  of  energy,  not  as  individual  units 
of  life.  The  self  or  ego  is  an  attribute  of  one 
changing  alliance  as  set  off  against  another.  What 
is  the  vital  force  which  holds  this  alliance  together? 
What  is  vitalism  as  distinct  from  mechanism?  Is 
either  anything  more  than  a  name  for  the  chemical 
attributes  of  complex  changing  organic  molecules? 
Of  what  are  these  cells  composed?  Carbon,  oxy- 
gen, hydrogen,  nitrogen,  mineral  salts.  We  know 
these  by  name.  We  can  isolate  them  and  test  their 
properties.  But  how  do  they  differ  one  from  an- 
other? Are  their  differences  real  and  permanent? 
They  are  forms  of  matter,  and  they  are  subject  to 
modes  of  motion.  But  does  matter  really  exist? 
Some  mathematicians  claim  that  all  relations  of  pon- 
derable matter  and  force  might  hold  if  the  atoms  of 
matter,  or  the  ions  which  compose  them,  were  not 
realities  at  all,  but  merely  relations  of  part  to  part  in 
a  universal  ether.  Each  of  these  units  possessed  of 
attraction  or  weight  may  be  a  vortex  ring  or  eddy  in 
the  ether,  of  which  the  ultimate  atoms  have  vibra- 
tion, but  not  attraction.  If,  therefore,  the  body  of 
man  be  an  alliance  of  millions  on  millions  of  animal 


34  Reality  and  Science 

zooids,  each  cell  being  composed  of  millions  on 
millions  of  eddies  in  an  inconceivable  and  impossible 
ether,  if  the  nature  and  existence  of  all  things 
around  us  be  the  same,  and  if,  in  detail,  it  be  recog- 
nizable only  by  its  effect  on  the  most  unstable  part 
of  this  unstable  structure,  we  stand  appalled  at  the 
unreality  of  the  whole  thing;  we  must  fall  back 
again  on  the  realities  of  common  sense,  from  which 
we  find  another  starting-point.  Once  more  things 
become  real  and  tangible.  From  speculations  as  to 
the  nature  of  matter  we  turn  with  relief  to  this 
sentence  of  Professor  William  S.  Franklin,*  as 
quoted  by  Dr.  James : 

"  I  think  that  the  sickliest  notion  of  physics,  even 
if  a  student  gets  it,  is  that  it  is  the  science  of  masses, 
molecules,  and  the  ether.  And  I  think  that  the 
healthiest  notion,  even  if  a  student  does  not  wholly 
get  it,  is  that  physics  is  the  science  of  the  ways  of 
taking  hold  of  bodies  and  pushing  them.  These 
concepts  of  mass  and  molecule  and  ether  are  vali- 
dated, if  at  all,  and  so  far  as  they  are  at  all,  by  the 
contribution  they  make  to  the  effective  taking  hold 
of  bodies  and  pushing  them." 

In  the  process  of  taking  hold  of  things  and  push- 
ing them,  we  have  found  some  guides  in  the  con- 
duct of  life.  We  know  that  we  have  developed 
some  propositions  workable  and  livable.  We  have 
gained  some  truth  which  stands  our  severest  tests. 
This  truth  holds  its  own,  from  whatever  side  we 
*  Science,  January  2,  1903. 


Reality  and  Science  35 

may  assault  it.  We  can  trust  our  lives  to  it,  and  to 
the  methods  by  which  we  have  worked  it  out. 
Every  day,  perhaps,  as  already  indicated,  we  trust 
our  lives  to  the  methods  of  the  chemist,  and  to  those 
of  the  electrician.  Each  conclusion  of  science  rep- 
resents a  continuous  testimony  of  human  experi- 
ence. Observation  and  experiment  form  the  basis 
of  science.  The  two  are  one  in  essence.  An  ob- 
servation is  our  record  of  an  experiment  which  has 
gone  on  for  ages,  and  in  which  the  setting  is  beyond 
our  powers.  In  an  experiment,  we  arrange  the 
minor  details  of  the  setting  to  fit  our  own  limita- 
tions. The  breaks  in  the  testimony  of  experience 
but  add  to  it  strength,  for  each  apparent  break  is 
but  the  appearance  of  a  new  principle,  a  new  rela- 
tion of  truth. 

The  "  philosophic  doubt  "  of  the  reality  of  ex- 
ternal things  is  often  simply  the  rhetorical  trick  of 
describing  the  known  in  terms  of  the  unknown. 
Philosophic  doubt,  as  set  forth  by  Mr.  Balfour, 
seems  to  be  a  process  by  which  men  question  the 
only  things  they  know  to  be  true,  in  order  to  prove 
the  reality  of  things  they  know  are  not  true.  To 
show  that  truth  and  falsehood  are  indistinguishable 
in  the  one  case,  is  used  as  an  argument  to  prove  that 
falsehood  is  truth  in  another  case,  and  that  truth 
and  falsehood  are  alike  as  a  general  thing.  That 
subjective  sensations  often  force  their  way  among 
objective  realities,  is  no  evidence  that  the  universe 
about  us  is,  after  ail,  subjective. 


36  Reality  and  Science 

We  may  use  the  same  philosophic  process  in  de- 
scribing to  the  child  the  sound  of  a  bell  in  terms 
of  nerve-fiber  irritations  in  the  auditory  capsules, 
due  to  the  tintinnabulations  of  the  tympanic  drum, 
in  response  to  the  impact  of  atmospheric  molecules 
set  in  motion  by  remote  vibrations  of  a  large  metallic 
body.  And  the  child's  answer,  "  it  is  just  a  bell,"  is 
essentially  scientific.  For  the  child,  this  describes 
the  sensation  in  terms  of  previous  experience.  Con- 
structively, by  the  process  of  doubting  the  real  to 
prove  the  unreal,  we  may  build  up  out  of  the  com- 
monest material — the  dregs  of  teacups,  or  the  waves 
of  clouds,  or  the  entrails  of  animals,  an  "  occult  sci- 
ence "  or  a  new  sciosophy.  It  is  possible  to  speak  of 
the  unknown  in  terms  of  the  known,  of  the  infinite 
in  terms  of  human  experience.  In  this  fashion,  men 
have  talked  with  God,  and  reported  their  conversa- 
tions in  diverse  languages.  In  this  fashion,  Bal- 
four  gives  to  his  positive  foundations  of  belief  an 
apparent  reality  as  fallacious  as  the  unreality  he  as- 
signs to  the  foundations  of  science.  To  speak  of 
the  unknown  in  terms  of  the  known,  is  the  basis  of 
the  conception  of  the  anthropomorphism  of  God. 
This  fallacy  gives  point  to  Haeckel's  sneer  at  the 
current  conception  of  Deity  as  that  of  a  "  gaseous 
vertebrate."  "  The  measure  of  a  man "  is  the 
basis  of  human  knowledge,  and  only  that  which  can 
be  brought  to  the  measure  is  part  of  man's  knowl- 
edge. 

But,  however  unattainable  the  conception  of  com- 


Reality  and  Science  37 

plete  and  final  truth,  partial  and  workable  truth  sur- 
rounds us  everywhere,  and  through  this  truth  every 
man  and  every  animal  has  its  hold  on  existence.  In 
this  hold  on  existence  Science  has  her  origin.  It 
is  the  business  of  science  to  discriminate  between 
realities  and  illusions,  between  objective  and  sub- 
jective nerve  conditions,  between  rationality  and  de- 
lusion. A  reality  is  an  impression  made  by  a  con- 
temporaneous event.  An  illusion  is  an  impression 
made  by  a  past  event,  or  by  a  derangement  in  the 
structure,  or  operation  of  the  nerve  structures  them- 
selves. It  is  easy  for  common  sense  to  tell  a  reality 
from  an  illusion.  To  be  able  to  do  this,  is  the  es- 
sence of  sanity.  Science  is  sanity.  Sanity  is  liv- 
able. Insanity  is  not. 

Delusion  and  illusion  are  alike  destructive  in  the 
conduct  of  life.  The  "  borderland  of  spirit,"  of 
which  we  hear  much  of  late — the  debatable  territory 
where  subjective  creations  and  objective  facts  jostle 
each  other  at  will — is  a  dangerous  region  for  the 
living  man  to  traverse.  In  so  far  as  one  is  lead- 
ing a  passive  life,  not  concerned  with  earning  his 
bread  or  with  controlling  the  affairs  of  others,  these 
dangers  may  seem  of  little  importance,  because  they 
are  never  brought  to  the  test  of  actuality.  But  the 
man  who  does  things,  must  know  exactly  what  he  is 
doing.  He  cannot  afford  to  confuse  subjective  and 
objective  conditions.  He  cannot  confuse  his  reali- 
ties with  the  creations  of  dreams  or  of  drugs. 


38  Reality  and  Science 

Among  men  in  a  general  way,  "  hearts  insurgent," 
impulses  uncontrolled,  recklessness  as  to  the  re- 
sults of  conduct  and  to  the  teachings  of  human 
experience,  mean  short  shrift  in  the  world  of  actu- 
alities. 

It  is  true,  as  I  have  said,  that  every  "  reality  "  has 
a  large  subjective  element.  The  impression  made 
by  an  external  object  is  modified  by  the  nature  of  the 
object  on  which  it  is  impressed,  and  by  the  num- 
ber and  character  of  previous  records  on  which  it  is, 
as  it  were,  superimposed.  It  is  not  the  external 
fact,  but  our  record  of  it,  with  which  we  must  deal. 
The  impression  made  by  the  shot  of  a  gun  becomes 
a  reality  when  the  pressure  of  the  air-waves  reaches 
our  nerve  centers,  though  the  explosion  may  have 
preceded  the  "  reality  "  by  several  seconds.  What- 
ever else  it  may  be,  this  explosion  is  not  a  noise  as 
we  hear  noise.  But  the  noise  bears  a  definite  rela- 
tion to  the  explosion  which  is  its  source.  It  has  a 
known  and  tested  relation  to  powder  and  shot,  and 
the  pull  on  the  trigger.  It  must  give  to  the  mind 
information  by  which  the  actual  occurrence  may  be 
correctly  interpreted,  although  in  terms  of  previous 
occurrences.  On  the  accuracy  of  this  interpretation 
the  fitness  of  our  response  through  nerve  control 
of  the  muscles  must  be  conditioned.  In  every-day 
matters,  as  those  relating  to  the  squash  in  the  gar- 
den, the  dictates  of  common  sense  are  obvious 
enough.  The  impression  and  response  are  alike 
simple.  Our  emotions  are  not  moved  by  the  squash, 


Reality  and  Science  39 

nor  is  our  recognition  of  its  nature  vitiated  by  an 
illusion.  No  delusion  results  from  any  defects  in 
our  reasoning  in  regard  to  it.  But  in  very  many 
relations  of  life,  the  truth  is  involved  in  difficult  con- 
ditions and  the  problem  of  common  sense  is  ren- 
dered most  complex.  To  discriminate  in  a  com- 
plex and  bewildering  environment,  is  the  task  of 
the  higher  common  sense,  which  we  call  science. 
The  degree  of  coincidence  of  our  subjective  im- 
pressions with  objective  truth,  is  graded  by  its  liv- 
ability,  by  its  veracity  in  terms  of  life.  Actuality 
and  reality,  object  and  impression,  are  not  the  same 
— any  more  than  the  shadow  is  identical  with  the 
substance,  but  the  shadow  follows  the  substance  with 
never  an  innovation  on  its  own  account.  For  a 
man  to  deceive  himself  in  any  large  degree,  to  make 
of  this  world  a  fools'  paradise  or  a  fools'  hell, 
which  is  another  name  for  the  same  thing,  is  com- 
monly to  find  a  short  way  out  of  it.  This  fact  in 
all  its  bearings  is  our  final  proof  that  man  deals 
with  a  world  outside  of  himself,  not  with  one  merely 
imagined  by  him.  Wisdom  is  our  knowledge  of 
this  outside  world.  Long  life  and  large  influence 
are  derived  from  wisdom.  Virtue  is  the  working 
arm  of  wisdom,  and  wisdom  and  virtue,  according 
to  the  testimony  of  all  the  ages,  unite  to  make  life 
effective.  Folly  and  vice  soon  destroy  our  free- 
dom, and  hand  us  over  to  the  crushing  grasp  of  the 
giants.  We  lie  prone  "  at  the  feet  of  the  strong 
god  Circumstance,"  unless  we  can  find  out  for  our- 


40  Reality  and  Science 

selves  the  method  by  which  this  strong  god  may 
be  made  to  work  in  our  behalf.  In  our  knowledge 
of  ourselves  and  of  our  limiting  relations,  we  find 
the  truth  that  makes  us  free. 

Our  experience  with  the  objective  universe  and 
its  effects  on  our  subjective  consciousness,  seems  to 
imply  the  existence  of  a  still  larger  consciousness, 
in  which  objective  and  subjective  should  be  united. 
The  objective  universe  should  be  within  the  grasp  of 
some  intelligence.  The  final  answer  to  the  world 
problem  cannot  be  disconnected,  disjointed  matter 
and  force  in  unrelated  fragments.  The  universe  is 
too  gigantic,  too  complex,  too  exact  in  its  relation 
of  cause  and  effect,  too  conscientious  in  its  rewards 
and  punishment,  to  exist  in  our  consciousness  alone. 
There  seems  to  be  outside  ourselves,  as  well  as 
within,  a  compelling  "  force  that  makes  for 
righteousness."  Outside  ourselves  is  "  the  cease- 
less flow  of  energy  and  the  rational  intelligence  that 
pervades  it."  No  part  of  this  flow  of  force  can 
we  fully  comprehend,  but  we  can  realize  its  per- 
sistence and  the  consistency  of  its  methods.  We 
find  no  chance  movement  in  the  universe,  "  no 
variableness,  no  shadow  of  turning."  That  there 
should  exist  a  "  law  of  Heaven  and  Earth  whose 
way  is  solid,  substantial,  vast,  and  unchanging," 
seems  to  imply  an  intelligence  adequate  to  have 
made  it  so,  and  to  comprehend  it  as  a  whole,  not 
merely  as  shown  in  casual  and  inexorable  frag- 
ments. This  intelligence  should  deal  with  terms  of 


Reality  and  Science  41 

absolute  truth,  freed  from  all  figures  of  speech 
drawn  from  human  experience,  and  of  all  anthropo- 
morphism imposed  by  the  limitations  of  human  ac- 
tion. Only  a  "  God  of  the  things  as  they  are  "  can 
"  know  things  as  they  really  are,"  and  in  our  rela- 
tions to  these  things,  we  become  conscious  of  the 
condition  of  being,  gracious  and  inexorable,  the 
"  Goodness  and  Severity  of  God." 

It  is  said  that  if  any  geologist  were  to  make  a 
cross-section  of  the  Andes  or  the  Sierra  Nevada 
anywhere,  he  would  in  this  section  have  a  clue  to 
the  whole  formation  of  the  Cordilleras,  the  great- 
est mountain  system  on  the  globe.  In  like  fashion, 
if  any  man  of  science  or  any  philosopher  could  form 
a  complete  picture  of  any  object  or  of  any  act 
whatever,  he  would  hold  the  key  to  the  Universe. 
To  strive  to  gain  this  key  has  been  the  perennial 
ideal  of  philosophy.  To  attain  such  knowledge  of 
the  relations  of  things  as  to  safeguard  the  con- 
duct of  life,  is  an  ideal  of  science.  From  materials 
science  has  tested  may  be  built  up  a  philosophy.  If 
we  were  to  know  anything,  "  all  in  all,"  "  a  flower 
in  a  crannied  wall,"  or  a  bit  of  the  wall  itself,  we 
should  have  the  clue  to  everything,  "  we  should 
know  what  God  is  and  man  is." 

In  the  various  forms  of  applied  science,  or  knowl- 
edge in  action,  the  anthropomorphic  element  is 
everywhere  evident.  If  man  is  to  use  his  knowl- 
edge, it  must  be  workable  by  him.  Its  truth  must 
in  some  degree  be  brought  to  the  measure  of  a 


42  Reality  and  Science 

man.  This  man-adapted  quality  has  been  called  the 
"  dramatic  tone  "  in  science.  "  Activity  is  imputed 
to  phenomena  for  the  purpose  of  organizing  them 
into  a  dramatically  consistent  system." 

On  the  basis  of  human  relations,  philosophy  tries 
to  look  at  the  universe  in  some  degree  as  through 
the  eyes  of  God.  This  purpose  is  most  exalted.  Its 
efforts  are  justified  by  their  effects  on  the  conduct 
of  life.  The  subject-matter  of  philosophy  ranges 
from  the  puerile  to  the  incomprehensible  and  only 
science — that  is,  organized  "  common  sense  " — can 
distinguish  the  two.  Good  and  bad,  not  embodied 
in  concrete  cases,  are  alike  abstractions.  Human 
knowledge  and  human  action  have  human  limita- 
tions. One  of  these  is  that  whatever  cannot  be 
stated  in  terms  of  human  experience,  cannot  be  com- 
prehended by  man.  Whatever  cannot  be  thought, 
cannot  be  lived.  Whatever  cannot  be  lived,  is  not 
yet  true. 

To  the  category  of  philosophy  belongs  what  we 
commonly  call  belief.  Belief  is  a  general  faith  in 
the  final  result  of  the  varied  elements  which  enter 
into  the  experience  of  life.  From  time  to  time  one 
or  another  phase  of  belief  has  crystallized  into  a 
creed.  A  creed  (credo)  is  my  statement  of  what  I 
think  is  true.  It  is  my  interpretation  of  my  own 
grouping  of  my  own  realities.  A  creed  is  alive 
when  it  is  livable,  when  it  looks  backward  to  human 
experience,  forward  to  the  conduct  of  life. 

"  The  essence  of  belief,"  says  Dr.  Charles  San- 


Reality  and  Science  43 

ders  Peirce,  "  is  the  establishment  of  a  habit,  and 
different  beliefs  are  distinguished  by  the  different 
modes  of  action  to  which  they  give  rise.  If  be- 
liefs do  not  differ  in  this  respect,  if  they  appease 
the  same  doubt  by  producing  the  same  rule  of  ac- 
tion, then  no  mere  differences  in  the  manner  of  con- 
sciousness of  them  can  make  them  different  beliefs, 
any  more  than  playing  a  tune  in  different  keys  is 
playing  different  tunes.  Imaginary  distinctions  are 
often  drawn  between  beliefs  which  differ  only  in 
their  mode  of  expression;  the  wrangling  which  en- 
sues is  real  enough,  however." 

In  clever  paradox,  Chesterton  says :  "  Some  peo- 
ple call  a  creed  a  dead  thing.  The  truth  is,  a  creed 
is  not  only  a  living  thing,  but  it  is  the  only  thing 
that  can  live.  It  was  exactly  because  revolutionists 
like  Swinburne  would  not  have  a  perpetual  creed, 
that  they  did  not  have  a  perpetual  revolution.  It 
was  because  Swinburne  would  not  fix  his  faith  that 
he  fell  away  afterwards  into  accidental  and  vulgar 
jingoism,  and,  indeed,  narrowly  escaped  being  made 
poet-laureate." 

Of  course,  not  even  so  audacious  an  essayist  as 
Chesterton  would  claim  permanence  for  any  actual 
creed  in  the  actual  world.  The  creeds  of  Christen- 
dom change  with  the  changing  years.  It  is  not  the 
formulation  which  endures,  but  the  spirit  which  has 
led  men  to  believe  that  there  was  indeed  something 
to  formulate. 

The  creeds  which  express  a  veering  philosophy, 


44  Reality  and  Science 

the  subtleties  of  theological  dogma,  have  no  per- 
manence in  human  history. 

But  the  verities  of  human  life,  the  common  ex- 
perience of  love,  sorrow,  hope,  faith,  action,  re- 
ligion, these  do  not  change.  Like  the  truths  of  ex- 
ternal nature,  all  these  are  forever  renewed  and 
verified  by  renewed  human  experience.  Love 
makes  for  life.  Action  is  life.  To  give  life  more 
abundantly,  is  the  essence  of  religion.  We  can  trust 
life,  that  life  is  worth  living.  We  can  trust  ac- 
tion; for  action  is  the  primal  purpose  of  feeling  and 
thinking.  We  can  trust  love,  for  it  has  its  justifica- 
tion in  happy  and  wholesome  life.  These  intangible 
forces,  on  which  rests  the  development  of  religion, 
have  been  pre-eminently  safe  in  the  history  of  man- 
kind. A  certain  dignity  attaches  itself  to  a  creed, 
however  crude  or  even  absurd  in  the  logic  of  its 
statement,  because  it  is  in  some  degree  associated 
with  religion,  and  then  it  deals  in  some  degree 
with  the  noblest  springs  of  human  conduct.  We 
can  therefore  believe,  "  believe  and  venture,"  even 
though  some  part  of  our  belief  is  not  at  once  re- 
ducible to  terms  of  human  experience. 

In  his  "  L'Evolution  Creatrice,"  Henri  Bergson  * 
thus  expresses  the  function  of  the  intellect  in  the 
face  of  realities : 

"  The  human  intellect  is  not  at  all  such  a  thing 
as  Plato  represents  in  the  allegory  of  the  cave.  It 
is  as  little  its  function  to  gaze  idly  upon  shadows 

*  Translation  of  Professor  Arthur  O.  Lovejoy. 


Reality  and  Science  45 

as  they  pass,  as  it  is,  turning  backward,  to  lose  it- 
self in  the  contemplation  of  the  celestial  splendor. 
It  has  other  work  to  do.  Yoked  like  oxen  to  a 
heavy  task,  we  feel  the  play  of  our  muscles,  the 
weight  of  the  plow,  the  resistance  of  the  soil.  To 
act,  and  to  know  that  we  act,  to  enter  into  contact 
with  reality,  indeed,  to  live  reality  .  .  .  such  is  the 
function  of  man's  intellect.  Philosophy  can  be  but 
an  effort  to  immerse  ourselves  afresh  in  the  uni- 
versal life." 


II 

REALITY  AND  THE  CONDUCT  OF  LIFE 

"  The  animal  supports  itself  upon  the  plant ;  man  goes 
astride  the  animal,  and  all  humanity,  scattered  through  space 
and  time,  is  one  immense  army,  galloping  beside  and  behind 
and  before  us,  drawing  each  of  us  on  in  a  sweeping  charge 
that  can  beat  down  every  resistance." — HENRI  BERGSON. 

EVOLUTION  is  orderly  change.  Organic 
evolution  is  the  orderly  change  in  the  suc- 
cession of  living  organisms.  In  the  main  it  is  a 
process  of  adaptation,  by  which  the  needs  of  the 
organism  are  brought  into  closer  and  closer  cor- 
respondence with  the  demands  of  the  environment. 
Every  step  in  advance  is  a  concession  to  the  en- 
vironment, and  each  concession  demands  still  others 
in  the  direction  of  more  perfect  adaptation.  The 
movement  towards  adaptation  is  conditioned  on  the 
destruction  of  the  non-adapted  and  the  non-adapt- 
able. This  process  is  known  as  Natural  Selection. 
It  is  the  only  known  cause  of  the  forward  move- 
ment in  the  process  of  evolution.  Other  factors, 
internal  and  external,  enter  into  the  processes 
of  orderly  change,  but  the  survival  of  the  fit- 
test in  the  struggle  for  existence  is  apparently 

47 


48       Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

the  sole  reason  for  the  ultimate  presence  and  per- 
sistence of  fitness  or  adaptation  of  all  sorts  and 
kinds. 

The  trend  of  organic  evolution  is,  therefore, 
toward  safer  relation  of  activity  to  environment. 
In  its  higher  phases  it  is  demand  for  wisdom  in 
action.  Human  development  finds  its  culmination 
in  the  rational  conduct  of  life.  The  most  highly 
organized  structures  are  those  of  the  brain  and 
nervous  system.  The  finest  material  known  to 
chemistry  goes  to  form  the  human  brain.  The 
brain  and  its  associated  structures  form  what  we 
may  term  a  device  for  making  action  safe.  The 
safety  of  action  is  the  animal's  test  of  realities. 
Conduct  of  life  in  the  large  sense  means  the  ra- 
tional choice  among  all  possible  responses  to  en- 
vironmental stimulus.  Intelligence  in  the  higher 
animals  and  man  involves  the  choice  of  responses 
as  distinguished  from  the  "  tropism ''  or  mechan- 
ical responses  of  the  lower  animals  and  plants,  and 
as  distinguished  from  the  instincts  or  automatic 
complex  responses  shown  by  all  the  higher  animals 
and  by  men. 

All  sensation  is  correlated  with  the  power  of  ac- 
tion. If  an  organism  is  not  to  act  it  does  not  feel. 
The  mind  is  at  bottom  and  primarily  the  director 
of  motion  and  of  locomotion.  With  the  increasing 
complexity  of  the  functions  of  action,  the  nervous 
system  and  its  functions  become  more  complex. 
Wherever  motion  exists  in  organic  nature,  there  is 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      49 

some  corresponding  irritability  or  sensitiveness  to 
external  conditions.  This  irritability  is  of  the  na- 
ture of  mind.  In  a  complex  organism,  the  struc- 
ture and  position  of  the  sensorium  or  mind  center 
depends  on  the  work  it  has  to  do,  or,  rather, 
through  heredity,  it  repeats  the  duties  the  organ 
has  had  to  perform  in  the  life  of  the  creature's  an- 
cestors. 

A  typical  plant  may  be  regarded  as  a  sessile  ani- 
mal, an  organism  which  does  not  move.  It  is  a 
colony  of  organic  cells  with  the  power  of  motion 
within  its  parts,  but  without  the  power  of  moving 
as  a  whole.  It  draws  its  nourishment  for  the  most 
part  from  inorganic  nature,  from  air  and  water. 
Its  life  is  not  conditioned  on  a  search  for  food,  nor 
on  the  movement  of  the  body  as  a  whole.  This 
search  is  conducted  by  means  of  the  feeding  parts 
alone.  These  feeding  parts  turn  toward  or  from 
the  sun,  upward  or  downward  under  the  impulse  of 
gravitation,  outward  toward  water  or  other  food. 
Darwin  has  shown  the  circumnutation  or  spiral 
squirming  of  all  the  growing  parts  of  a  living  plant. 
That  the  plant  has  no  nerve  centers  is  due  to  the 
fact  that,  being  sessile,  it  cannot  make  use  of  such 
centers.  Its  mind,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  is 
diffused  through  the  region  of  its  growth.  But 
when  cells  are  co-ordinated  to  form  an  animal,  or 
moving  and  feeding  organism,  some  sort  of  central 
control  becomes  a  necessity,  to  be  developed  in  pro- 
portion to  the  demands  laid  upon  it.  Such  control 


50      Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

in  its  degree  is  the  conduct  of  life.  The  successful 
conduct  of  life  is  the  verification  of  the  "  realities," 
impressed  by  the  environment  on  the  animal's 
nervous  system. 

We  may  perhaps  not  improperly  turn  from  the 
rudimentary  and  unillumined  conduct  of  life  possi- 
ble to  the  lower  animal,  to  consider  the  same  matter 
in  a  much  higher  phase.  The  conduct  of  life  is  the 
noblest  art  possible  to  man.  The  essential  function 
of  religion  is  found  in  the  control  of  the  conduct  of 
life  in  its  loftiest  aspects.  The  spread  of  any  form 
of  religion  indicates  that  it  rests  on  a  degree  of 
truth.  This  is  proved  by  its  workableness,  though 
the  fact  that  it  meets  conditions  in  human  life  does 
not  tend  to  verify  other  assumptions  which  may  be 
connected  with  it.  That  the  Mormon  religion  may 
tend  to  make  men  sober  and  industrious,  or  that  it 
gives  consolation  on  the  death-bed,  speaks  for  its 
truth  or  at  least  for  its  utility,  but  it  does  not  in  any 
degree  argue  for  polygamy,  nor  does  it  verify  the 
visions  of  Joseph  Smith.  These  must  be  judged 
by  other  and  very  different  tests. 

The  vitality  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  rests  on  its 
fitness  to  the  needs  of  civilizing  and  civilized  men. 
The  founder  of  this  religion  was  not  interested  in 
mysteries  and  superstitions,  in  creeds  and  argu- 
ments, in  pomp  and  circumstance,  in  imperialism  or 
ecclesiasticism.  No  ceremony  was  sacred  to  him, 
no  emotion  praiseworthy,  unless  it  led  to  doing.  Its 
test  he  found  in  its  fruits.  Let  it  "  feed  my 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      51 

lambs."  Life  is  justified  by  service,  not  by  dom- 
ination nor  by  happiness  alone. 

To  believe  that  life  is  worth  living,  to  trust  to  the 
reality  of  external  things  as  reproduced  in  the 
realities  of  the  human  mind,  to  have  red  blood  in 
one's  arteries,  to  throw  oneself  with  courage  and 
enthusiasm  into  the  affairs  of  the  day,  to  be  satis- 
fied with  the  universe  as  it  is,  and  to  be  happy,  to 
play  a  man's  part  in  it,  all  this  is  justified  by  the 
tests  of  science.  All  this  makes  for  the  abundance 
of  life.  It  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the  philosophy 
of  despair,  that  pessimism  is  not  livable.  A  philoso- 
phy which  impedes  or  confuses  our  conduct  of  life 
cannot  be  sound  doctrine.  Happiness  in  this  world 
is  the  accompaniment  of  normal  life,  in  normal  ac- 
tion, in  normal  relationship  to  external  things.  It 
can  be  secured  on  no  other  terms.  Happiness 
makes  room  for  more  happiness,  while  imaginary 
pleasures,  the  illusions  of  nervous  disorder,  hysteria, 
and  drunkenness  destroy  the  nervous  system  itself, 
and  render  rational  enjoyment  impossible.  Doing, 
struggling,  helping,  loving,  always  something  posi- 
tive, something  moving,  is  the  condition  of  happi- 
ness. 

Each  living  being  is  a  link  in  a  continuous  chain 
of  life,  going  back  in  the  past  to  the  unknown  be- 
ginnings of  life.  Into  this  chain  of  life,  so  far  as 
we  know,  death  has  never  entered,  because  only  in 
life  has  the  ancestor  the  power  of  producing  and 
casting  off  the  germ  cells  by  which  life  is  continued. 


52       Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

Each  individual  is  in  a  sense  the  guardian  of  the 
life  chain  in  which  it  forms  a  link.  Each  link  is 
tested  as  to  its  fitness,  by  the  conditions  external  to 
itself  in  which  it  carries  on  its  functions.  Those 
creatures  unadapted  to  the  environment,  whatever 
it  may  be,  are  destroyed,  as  well  as  those  not  adapt- 
able. And  this  environment  by  which  each  is 
tested  is  the  objective  universe.  It  is  not  the  world 
as  man  knows  it.  It  is  the  world  as  it  is.  Nature 
has  no  pardon  for  ignorance  or  illusions.  She  is 
no  respecter  of  persons.  Her  laws  and  her  pen- 
alties consider  only  what  is,  and  have  no  dealings 
with  semblances.  By  this  experience  we  come  to 
know  that  reality  exists,  that  there  is  an  external 
world  to  the  demands  of  which  our  senses,  our  rea- 
son, our  powers  of  action  are  all  concessions.  The 
safety  of  each  chain  of  life  is  proportioned  to  the 
adaptation  of  its  links  to  these  conditions.  This 
adaptation  is,  in  its  essence,  obedience.  The  obedi- 
ence of  any  creature  is  conditioned  on  its  response 
in  action  to  sensation  or  knowledge.  Sense  per- 
ception and  intellect  alike  stand  as  advisers  to  its 
power  of  choice.  The  power  of  choice  involves  the 
need  to  choose  right;  for  wrong  choice  leads  to 
death.  Death  ends  the  chain  of  which  the  creature 
is  a  link,  and  the  life  of  the  world  is  continued  by 
those  whose  line  of  choice  has  been  safe.  Death  is 
not  the  punishment  for  folly,  but  it  is  folly's  in- 
evitable result,  given  time  enough.  Severity  of  con- 
dition and  stress  of  competition  are  met  in  life  by 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      53 

the  survival  of  those  adequate  to  meet  these  condi- 
tions. Thus,  in  the  struggle  for  existence  in  or- 
ganic life,  when  instinct  and  impulse  fail,  reason 
rises  to  insure  safety.  At  last  with  civilized  man 
reason  comes  to  be  a  chief  element  in  the  guidance 
of  life.  With  greater  power  to  know,  and  hence  to 
choose  safely,  greater  complexity  of  conditions  be- 
comes possible,  and  the  multifarious  demands  of 
modern  civilization  find  some  at  least  who  can  meet 
them  fairly  well.  To  such  the  stores  of  human  wis- 
dom must  be  open.  To  others,  safety  in  new  condi- 
tions lies  only  in  imitation.  The  multitudes  of  civ- 
ilized men,  like  the  multitudes  of  animals,  are  kept 
alive  by  the  instinct  of  conventionality.  The  in- 
stinct to  follow  those  who  have  passed  over  safely  is 
one  of  the  most  useful  of  all  impulses  to  action.  In 
the  same  connection  we  must  recognize  authority  .as 
a  most  important  source  of  knowledge  to  the  in- 
dividual; but  its  value  is  proportioned  to  the  ability 
of  the  individual  to  use  the  tests  wisdom  must  ap- 
ply to  the  credentials  of  authority. 

But  instinct,  appetite,  impulse,  conventionality, 
and  respect  for  authority  all  point  backward.  They 
are  the  outcome  of  past  conditions.  "  New  occa- 
sions bring  new  duties,"  and  new  facts  and  laws 
must  be  learned  if  men  prove  adequate  to  the  life 
their  own  institutions  and  their  own  development 
have  brought  upon  them.  To  the  wise  and  obedi- 
ent the  most  complex  life  brings  no  special  strain 
or  discomfort.  It  is  as  easy  to  do  great  things  as 


54      Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

small,  if  one  only  knows  how.  But  to  the  ignorant, 
weak,  and  perverse,  the  extension  of  civilization  be- 
comes an  engine  of  destruction.  The  freedom  of 
self-realization  involves  the  freedom  of  self-perdi- 
tion. Hence  appears  the  often-discussed  relation 
of  "  progress  and  poverty "  in  social  develop- 
ment. Hence  it  comes  that  civilization,  of  which 
the  essence  is  mutual  help  or  altruism,  seems 
to  become  one  vast  instrument  for  the  killing  of 
fools. 

In  the  specialization  of  life,  conditions  are  con- 
stantly changing.  Every  age  is  an  age  of  transi- 
tion, and  transition  brings  unrest  because  it  im- 
pairs the  value  of  conventionality.  With  the  low- 
est forms  of  life  there  is  no  safety  save  in  absolute 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  the  world  around  them. 
This  obedience  becomes  automatic  and  hereditary, 
because  the  disobedient  leave  no  chain  of  descent. 
All  instincts,  appetites,  impulses  to  action,  even  cer- 
tain forms  of  illusions,  point  toward  such  obedi- 
ence. Whether  we  regard  these  phenomena  as  vari- 
ations selected  because  useful,  or  as  inherited  hab- 
its, their  relation  is  the  same.  They  survive  as 
guarantees  of  future  obedience  because  they  have 
enforced  obedience  in  the  past.  With  the  most  en- 
lightened man,  the  same  necessity  for  obedience  ex- 
ists. The  instincts,  appetites,  and  impulses  of  the 
lower  animals  remain  in  him,  or  disappear  only  as 
reason  is  adequate  to  take  their  place.  And,  in 
any  case,  there  is  no  alleviation  for  the  woes  of 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      55 

life  "  save  the  absolute  veracity  of  action,  the 
resolute  facing  of  the  world  as  it  is." 

The  intense  practicality  of  all  this  must  be  recog- 
nized. The  truths  of  science  are  approximate,  not 
absolute.  They  must  be  stated  in  terms  of  human 
consciousness.  They  look  forward  to  possible  hu- 
man action.  Knowledge  which  can  only  ac- 
cumulate, without  being  woven  into  conduct,  has 
been  ever  "  a  weariness  to  the  flesh."  As  food 
must  be  formed  into  tissues,  so  must  knowledge 
pass  over  into  action.  In  the  lower  animals,  sensa- 
tion, automatically,  in  large  part,  passes  over  into 
motion.  In  like  manner,  in  man  sensation  and 
thought  find  their  natural  result  in  action.  In  like 
fashion,  science  leads  to  art,  knowledge  to  power. 
Power  and  effectiveness  are  conditioned  on  ac- 
curacy. Every  failure  in  the  sense-organs,  every 
form  of  deterioration  of  the  nerves,  shows  itself  in 
reduction  of  effectiveness.  Reduced  effectiveness 
manifests  itself  through  the  processes  of  natural 
selection  as  lessened  safety  of  life.  Thus  the  de- 
generation of  the  nervous  system  through  excesses, 
through  precocious  activity,  or  through  the  effect 
of  drugs,  shows  itself  in  untrustworthy  perceptions, 
in  uncontrolled  muscles,  and  in  general  insecurity. 
Incidentally,  all  these  are  recorded  by  fall  in  social 
standing.  The  sober  mind  is  necessary  to  the  se- 
curity of  life. 

In  general  all  civilized  men  are  well  born.  They 
come  of  good  stock.  For  the  lineage  of  perversity, 


56       Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

insanity,  and  even  stupidity,  is  never  a  long  one. 
The  perverse,  insane,  and  stupid  survive  through  the 
tolerance  of  others.  They  cannot  maintain  them- 
selves, and,  in  spite  of  charity  and  the  sense  of  con- 
ventionality, the  mortality  caused  by  the  "  fool- 
killer  "  is  something  enormous.  It  is  an  essential 
element  in  race  progress.  It  increases  with  the  ad- 
vance of  civilization,  because  of  increasing  com- 
plexity of  conditions.  It  is  an  offset  for  the  sys- 
tematic life-saving  which  science  makes  possible, 
and  which  virtue  makes  necessary.  Men  fail  in 
life  through  lack  of  whole-hearted  interest  in  the 
things  around  them  which  might  be  at  their  service, 
and  in  their  "  shuffling  attitude  "  in  the  face  of 
observed  or  observable  cause  and  effect. 

The  recent  "  recrudescence  of  superstition,"  a 
striking  accompaniment  of  an  age  of  science,  is  in 
a  sense  dependent  on  science.  Science  has  made  it 
possible.  The  traditions  of  science  are  so  diffused 
in  the  community  at  large  that  fools  find  it  safe  to 
defy  them.  Those  who  take  hallucinations  for 
realities;  those  whose  memory  impressions  and 
motor  dreams  a  defective  will  fails  to  control; 
those  who  mistake  subjective  sensations  produced 
by  disease  or  disorder  for  objective  conditions — all 
these  sooner  or  later  lose  their  place  in  the  line.  In 
falling  out,  they  take  with  them  the  whole  line  of 
their  possible  descendants.  The  condition  of  mind 
which  is  favorable  to  mysticism,  superstition,  and 
revery,  is  unfavorable  to  life,  and  the  continuance 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      57 

of  such  condition  leads  to  misery.  On  the  bill- 
board across  the  street,  as  I  write,  I  see  the  ad- 
vertisement of  a  lecture  on  "  The  Ethical  Value  of 
Living  in  ^,wo  Worlds  at  Once."  Whoever  thus 
lives  in  t\\o  worlds  is  certain  soon  to  prove  in- 
adequate for  one  of  them,  and  this  will  be  the  one 
most  charged  with  realities. 

If  all  men  sought  healing  from  the  blessed  hand- 
kerchief of  the  lunatic,  or  from  contact  with  old 
bones  or  old  clothes;  if  all  physicians  used  "re- 
vealed remedies,"  or  the  remedies  "  Nature  finds  " 
for  each  disease;  if  all  business  were  conducted  by 
faith;  if  all  supposed  "natural  rights"  of  man 
were  recognized  in  legislation,  the  insecurity  of 
these  beliefs  would  speedily  appear.  Not  only  civ- 
ilization, but  civilized  man  himself,  would  vanish 
from  the  earth.  The  long  and  dreary  road  of  prog- 
ress through  fool-killing  would  for  centuries  be 
traversed  again.  That  is  strong  which  endures. 
Might  does  not  make  right,  but  that  which  is  right 
will  justify  itself  as  the  basis  of  race  stability. 

So  closely  is  knowledge  linked  to  action,  that  in 
general  among  animals  and  men  sensation  is  ab- 
sent or  not  trustworthy  when  it  cannot  result  in  ac- 
tion. Objects  beyond  our  reach,  as  the  stars  or 
the  clouds,  are  not  truthfully  pictured.  Accuracy  of 
perception  grows  less  as  the  square  of  the  distance 
increases.  It  is  a  recognized  law  of  psychology 
that  only  medium  variations  and  differences  are  cor- 
rectly estimated.  The  senses  deal  correctly  only 


58       Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

with  the  near,  the  mind  only  with  the  common. 
The  unfamiliar  lends  itself  readily  to  illusions.  The 
familiar  is  recognized  chiefly  by  breaks  in  continu- 
ity. The  real  forces  of  nature  are  hicjpen  by  their 
grandeur,  by  their  duration.  Men  see  the  waves 
on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  but  not  the  mighty  tides 
beneath  it.  Again,  the  senses  are  less  acute  than 
the  mechanism  of  sense  organs  would  make  possi- 
ble. This  is  shown  through  occasional  cases  of 
hypersesthesia  or  ultra-sensitiveness.  This  occurs 
in  abnormal  individuals,  or  in  diseased  conditions. 
It  occurs  normally  in  creatures  whose  lives  in  some 
sense  depend  on  it.  Thus  some  of  the  most  re- 
markable exhibitions  of  "  mind  reading "  may  be 
paralleled  by  retriever  dogs,  who  have  been  pur- 
posely bred  to  sustain  the  hyperaesthesia  of  the  sense 
of  smell.  Hyperaesthesia  of  more  than  one  of  the 
senses  would  be  to  most  animals  a  source  of  con- 
fusion and  danger  rather  than  of  safety.  The  high 
development  of  the  brain  in  man  in  large  degree 
takes  the  place  of  acuteness  of  special  senses.  It 
is  part  of  the  function  of  the  will  to  regulate  the 
senses  and  to  suppress  those  impressions  which 
should  not  lead  to  action. 

In  his  perception  of  external  relations  man  is 
aided  by  the  devices  of  science,  which  may  be  taken 
up  or  laid  down  at  will.  By  means  of  instruments 
of  precision  any  of  the  senses  may  be  extended  to 
an  enormous  degree,  and  at  the  same  time  the  per- 
sonal equation  or  individual  source  of  error  is 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      59 

largely  eliminated,  or,  rather,  standardized  and 
methodized.  The  camera  may  be  focused  to  any 
desired  degree  of  clearness  of  image.  Once  ad- 
justed the  instrument  tells  its  story.  There  is  no 
evading  its  report.  The  use  of  instruments  of 
precision  is  the  special  characteristic  of  the  advance 
of  science.  No  instrument  of  precision  can  give  us 
the  ultimate  essence  of  any  part  of  the  universe. 
No  scientific  experiment  can  do  away  with  the 
measure  of  human  experience  as  the  basis  of  in- 
telligibility. At  the  same  time  we  can  throw  large 
illuminations  into  the  "  dimly  lighted  room "  in 
which  the  phenomena  of  consciousness  take  place. 
By  the  simple  process  of  photography,  for  example, 
we  may  reproduce  the  objects  of  environment. 
That  such  pictures  do  express  phases  of  reality  ad- 
mits of  no  doubt ;  for  in  the  photographic  camera  all 
personal  equation  is  eliminated.  As  to  form  of  out- 
line and  reflection  of  light,  "  the  sun  paints  true  " 
under  our  direction  as  to  method,  and  the  paintings 
thus  made  by  means  of  the  action  of  non-living  mat- 
ter produce  on  our  senses  impressions  coinciding 
with  those  of  the  outside  world  itself. 

How  do  we  know  that  this  is  truth?  Because 
confidence  in  it  adds  to  the  safety  of  life.  We  can 
trust  our  lives  to  it.  If  it  were  an  illusion  it  would 
kill,  because  action  based  on  illusion  leads,  in  the 
long  run,  to  destruction,  though  it  may  take  more 
than  the  single  generation  to  demonstrate  this  fact. 

One  can  trust  his  life,  as  elsewhere  stated,  to  the 


60      Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

message  sent  on  a  telegraph  wire.  All  who  travel 
by  rail  do  this  daily.  One  can  trust  his  life  to  the 
reading  of  a  thermometer.  The  chemist's  tests 
will  select  for  us  foods  among  poisons.  We  may 
trust  these  tests  absolutely.  We  may  safely  and 
sometimes  wisely  take  poisons  into  our  bodies  if  we 
know  what  we  are  doing.  By  the  advice  of  a  physi- 
cian, trusting  in  the  weigher's  instruments  of  preci- 
sion, poisons  may  do  no  harm.  One  mite  of 
strychnine  may  be  an  aid  to  vital  processes ;  a  dozen 
may  mean  instant  cessation  of  these  processes  by 
the  unmeasured  intensity  of  their  action.  The 
chemist's  balance  advises  us  as  to  all  this.  All  these 
instruments  of  precision  belong  to  science.  They 
are  examples  taken  from  thousands  of  the  methods 
of  "  organized  common  sense." 

By  means  of  common  sense,  organized  and  un- 
organized, all  creatures  that  can  move  are  enabled 
to  move  safely.  The  security  of  human  life  in  its 
relations  to  environment  is  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
"  philosophic  doubt "  as  to  the  existence  of  or  pos- 
sibility of  authentic  knowledge  of  external  nature; 
for  if  all  phenomena  were  within  the  mind,  no  one 
of  them  could  be  more  dangerous  than  another.  A 
dream  of  murder  is  no  more  dangerous  than  a 
dream  of  a  "  pink  tea,"  so  long  as  its  action  is  con- 
fined to  the  limits  of  the  dream.  But  the  relation 
of  life  to  environment  is  inseparable  and  inexorable. 
Cause  and  effect  are  perfectly  linked.  This  is  a 
world  of  absolute  verity,  and  its  demand  is  abso- 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      61 

lute  obedience.  Life  without  concessions  or  con- 
ditions is  the  philosopher's  dream.  By  constant 
concession  we  control  our  environment,  raising  the 
human  will  to  the  rank  of  a  cosmic  force. 

What  we  know  as  pain  is  the  necessary  signal  of 
physiological  danger.  Without  pain,  life,  condi- 
tioned by  the  environment,  would  be  impossible. 
Organic  beings  need  such  a  stimulus  to  veracity. 
Those  dangers  which  are  painless  are  the  hardest 
to  avoid;  the  diseases  which  are  painless  are  the 
most  difficult  to  cure,  because  the  patient  has  no 
faith  in  their  existence. 

The  ideal  in  the  mind  tends  always  to  go  over 
into  action.  The  noble  ideal  discloses  itself  in  a 
noble  life.  It  is  part  of  the  wisdom  of  each  gen- 
eration, its  science  as  well  as  its  religion,  to  form 
the  ideals  of  the  next.  History  is  foreshadowed 
in  these  ideals  before  it  is  enacted  on  the  stage  of 
life. 

If  the  strong  man  is  to  rise  above  convention- 
ality, suggestion,  and  authority  as  guides  to  con- 
duct, so  must  he  rise  above  the  domination  of 
hereditary  impulses.  Conventionality  and  author- 
ity hold  in  check  the  bodily  impulses,  once  neces- 
sities under  wild  and  rude  conditions.  To  escape 
from  human  control  to  be  ruled  by  the  animal  pas- 
sions is  not  liberty.  No  man  becomes  a  genuine 
"  superman  "  except  through  self-control,  superior 
to  that  of  other  men. 

An  old  parable  of  the  conduct  of  life  shows  man 


62       Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life 

in  a  light  skiff  in  a  tortuous  channel  beset  with 
rocks,  borne  by  a  falling  current  to  an  unknown  sea. 
He  is  kept  alert  by  the  dangers  of  his  situation.  As 
his  boat  bumps  against  the  rocks  he  must  bestir 
himself.  If  this  contact  were  not  painful  he  would 
not  heed  it;  if  it  were  not  destructive  he  would  not 
need  to  heed  it.  Had  he  no  power  to  act,  he  could 
not  heed  it  if  he  would.  But  with  sensation,  will, 
freedom  to  act,  narrow  though  the  limits  of  free- 
dom be,  his  safety  rests  in  some  degree  in  his  own 
hands.  That  he  has  thus  far  steered  his  course 
fairly  well  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  is  still  above- 
board.  He  may  choose  his  course  for  himself — 
not  an  easy  thing  to  do,  unless  he  scan  most  care- 
fully the  nature  of  rocks  and  waves,  and  weigh 
carefully  his  control  of  the  boat  itself.  He  may 
follow  the  course  of  others  with  some  degree  of 
the  safety  they  have  attained.  He  may  follow  his 
own  impulses,  in  man's  case  inherited  from  those 
who  found  them  safe  guides  to  action.  But  in  new 
conditions  neither  conventionality  nor  impulse  nor 
desire  will  suffice.  He  must  know  what  is  about 
him  in  order  that  he  may  know  what  he  is  doing. 
He  must  know  what  he  is  doing  in  order  to  do  any- 
thing effectively.  Ignorant  action  is  more  danger- 
ous than  no  action  at  all.  Man  must  realize  the  aim 
of  his  effort.  He  must  know  what  he  is  striving  to 
do  in  order  so  to  question  reality  as  to  secure  an- 
swers that  shall  further  and  shall  refine  his  activity. 
The  "  sealed  orders  "  which  control  the  lower  ani- 


Reality  and  the  Conduct  of  Life      63 

mals  and  our  "  brother  organisms,  the  plants,"  are 
not  adequate  for  the  conduct  of  human  life.  With 
the  power  of  movement  and  the  "  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil,"  man  has  no  choice  but  to  accept  the 
conditions.  And  thus  it  comes  again  that  there  is 
"  no  alleviation  for  the  sufferings  of  man  except 
through  absolute  veracity  of  thought  and  action, 
and  the  resolute  facing  of  the  world  as  it  is." 

And  for  the  same  reason  also  it  is  well  for  man 
not  to  "  pretend  to  know  or  to  believe  what  he 
really  does  not  know  or  believe."  The  appetites, 
impulses,  passions,  illusions,  delusions  even,  which 
have  proved  safe  in  the  past  development  of  life, 
science  would  not  destroy.  But  these  must  be  sub- 
ordinate to  the  will  and  the  intellect.  And  this  sub- 
ordination of  the  lower  to  the  higher  motives  in 
life  is  the  certain  trend  of  human  evolution,  as  it 
has  been  the  ideal  of  those  who,  in  the  name  of  re- 
ligion, have  striven  worthily  for  man's  spiritual  ad- 
vancement. 


Ill 

REALITY  AND  MONISM 

"  The  analysis  which  is  necessary  to  let  us  master  the 
phenomena  of  life  furnishes  us  with  a  surer  base  than  that 
which  leads  directly  to  explain  such  phenomena." — ALFRED 
GIARD. 

ONE  of  the  conspicuous  features  of  modern 
philosophical  discussion  is  a  revival  in  the 
name  of  science  of  the  doctrine  of  Monism.  A 
phase  of  this  doctrine  is  that  of  "  a  completely  uni- 
fied knowledge  in  which  physical  and  mental  world 
meet  on  equal  terms."  This,  according  to  James, 
was  "  the  original  Greek  ideal  to  which  men  must 
surely  return." 

The  doctrine  of  monism,  in  whatever  form,  pro- 
claims the  essential  unity  of  things  which,  in  their 
various  contacts  with  human  experience,  appear  to 
us  different.  The  primal  conception  of  monism  is 
that  there  is  one  spirit  or  one  essence  in  all  that 
exists,  whether  ponderable  or  imponderable,  whether 
visible  or  invisible,  tangible  or  impalpable;  that  the 
whole  cognizable  world  is  constituted  and  has  been 
developed  in  accordance  with  one  common  funda- 
mental law.  This  one  is  defined  as  "  the  concrete 

65 


66  Reality  and  Monism 

unified  whole  of  all  that  is."  In  this  view  we  are 
to  conceive  that  all  categories  at  bottom  are  one, 
matter  and  force,  sense  and  spirit,  object  and  sub- 
ject, Nature  and  God.  This  fundamental  concep- 
tion of  monism  has  never  been  made  really  in- 
telligible, because  it  can  be 'stated  in  no  terms  of 
human  experience.  There  is  no  way  known  to  us 
by  which  we  can  expose  it  to  scientific  tests. 
Whether  it  be  the  noblest  generalization  of  philoso- 
phy or  a  mere  play  on  words,  no  one  can  say,  for 
no  one  knows.  No  one  yet  knows  how  to  find  out. 

According  to  Professor  Stuart,  "  There  are  two 
ways  in  which  it  may  be  sought  to  establish  a  mo- 
nistic hypothesis :  ( i )  We  may  try  to  synthesize  all 
descriptive  science  to  the  end  of  showing  how  all 
phases  of  reality  are  expressions  of  a  common  prin- 
ciple. This  is  what  Spencer,  for  one,  attempted. 
(2)  It  may  be  argued  from  the  fact  that  science 
and  mathematics  exist  that  knower  and  known  must 
be  of  kindred  nature.  From  the  fact  that  we  see 
no  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  scientific  research  we 
may  infer  that  all  reality  is  knowable,  though  not 
known.  The  first  of  these  principles  is  Kantianism, 
although  Kant  was  not  a  monist,  by  profession  at 
least.  Those  who  came  after  him,  Hegel  and  other 
idealists,  thought  that  they  saw  a  way  of  establish- 
ing monism  by  combining  these  two  general  prem- 
ises. This  is,  in  a  sense,  an  empirical  proof  of  mon- 
ism, though  we  may  regard  the  logic  as  insecure." 

Man  is  able  in  a  certain  way  to  make  his  way  in 


Reality  and  Monism  67 

the  world.  Obviously,  then,  he  is  not  an  alien  ut- 
terly. He  is  thus  far  in  unity  with  the  rest  of  the 
universe.  So  much  of  monism  we  may  all  accept. 
The  amount  and  nature  of  this  "  unity  "  we  cannot 
define.  Whether  we  can  accept  such  unity  of  na- 
ture once  for  all  and  wholesale,  in  face  of  the  visible 
lack  of  unity  about  us,  becomes  a  test  of  our  faith  in 
monism. 

The  doctrine  of  monism  can  be  brought  to  a  final 
verdict  of  science,  if  its  logical  necessities  come 
within  the  domain  of  action.  To  all  the  tests  we 
can  give,  of  course,  force  is  not  identical  with  mat- 
ter, though  the  two  have  never  been  separated.  To 
all  the  tests  we  can  give,  there  are  many  different 
kinds  of  matter,  and  many  different  ways  in  which 
energy  may  show  itself.  At  the  most,  those  who 
hold  to  the  unity  of  matter  in  its  chemical  forms 
may  maintain  that  units  of  matter  are  subject  to 
breaking  up,  to  evolution,  or  to  processes  of  re- 
combination. Thus  far  our  chemists  have  not 
found  it  so. 

"  Rational  unity  of  all  things,"  as  Professor 
James  admits,  "  is  an  inspiring  conception,"  but  it 
seems  to  involve  a  condition  of  the  universe  in  which 
"  reality  is  ready-made  and  complete  from  all 
eternity,"  while,  in  apparent  fact,  reality  "  is  still  in 
the  making,  and  awaits  part  of  its  completion  from 
the  future.  On  the  one  hand,  the  universe  is  ab- 
solutely secure,  on  the  other  it  is  still  pursuing  its 
adventures." 


68  Reality  and  Monism 

On  the  one  side,  according  to  James,  "  we  have 
only  one  edition  of  the  universe,  unfinished,  grow- 
ing in  all  sorts  of  places,  especially  in  the  places 
where  thinking  beings  are  at  work.  On  the  ra- 
tionalist side,  we  have  a  universe  in  many  editions, 
one  real  one,  the  infinite  folio,  or  edition  de  luxe, 
eternally  complete,  and  here  the  various  finite  edi- 
tions, full  of  false  readings,  distorted  and  mutilated 
each  in  its  own  way."  "  It  is  impossible  not  to  see  a 
temperamental  difference  at  work  in  the  choice  of 
sides.  The  rationalist  mind,  radically  taken,  is  of 
a  doctrinaire  and  authoritative  complexion.  The 
phrase,  '  must  be,'  is  ever  on  his  lips.  The  belly- 
band  of  its  universe  must  be  tight.  A  radical 
pragmatist,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  happy-go-lucky, 
anarchistic  sort  of  creature.  If  he  had  to  live  in  a 
tub  like  Diogenes,  he  wouldn't  mind  at  all,  if  the 
hoops  were  loose  and  the  staves  let  in  the  sun." 

"  Whoever  claims  absolute  theological  unity,"  I 
quote  again  from  Professor  James,  "  saying  that 
there  is  one  purpose  that  every  detail  of  the  uni- 
verse observes,  dogmatizes  at  his  own  risk. 
Theologians  who  dogmatize  thus  find  it  more  and 
more  impossible,  as  our  acquaintance  with  the  war- 
ring interests  of  the  world's  parts  grows  more  con- 
crete, to  imagine  what  the  one  climacteric  purpose 
may  possibly  be  like.  We  see,  indeed,  that  certain 
evils  minister  to  ulterior  goods,  that  the  bitter 
makes  the  cocktail  better,  and  that  a  bit  of  danger 
or  hardship  puts  us  to  our  trumps.  We  can  vaguely 


Reality  and  Monism  69 

generalize  this  into  the  doctrine  that  all  the  evil 
in  the  universe  is  but  instrumental  to  its  greater 
perfection.  But  the  scale  of  evil  actually  in  sight 
defies  all  human  tolerance  and  transcendental  ideal- 
ism in  the  pages  of  a  Bradley  or  a  Royce  brings  us 
no  farther  than  the  book  of  Job  did.  God's  ways 
are  not  as  our  ways,  so  let  us  put  our  hands  upon 
our  mouth.  A  god  who  can  relish  such  superfluities 
of  horror  is  no  God  for  human  beings  to  appeal  to. 
His  animal  spirits  are  too  high.  In  other  words, 
the  Absolute  with  His  one  purpose  is  not  the  man- 
like God  of  Common  People." 

We  may  balance  against  this  striking  and  half-hu- 
morous statement  these  words  of  Charles  Ferguson : 

"  The  beginning  of  Science  is  in  Congeniality 
with  God.  The  larger  word  for  science  is  con- 
science, and  the  final  test  of  the  authenticity  and 
permanence  of  a  physical  fact  is  its  moral  reason- 
ableness— its  congruity  with  right.  Do  you  pro- 
test sometimes  with  vehemence  that  God  is  cruel 
and  unjust?  Justice  must  then  be  rooted  very  deep 
in  the  heart  of  things  since  it  dares  to  confront  om- 
nipotence with  a  fist  so  feeble  to  back  its  claim! 
But  you  may  well !  You  must  not  submit  to  be  bul- 
lied by  earthquakes  and  tornadoes,  or  by  the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars.  If  royalties  and  usuries  and 
monopolies  are  unjust,  they  must  not  be  tolerated. 
And  if  gravitation  and  cohesion  are  unjust,  they 
must  be  put  down.  Unless  you  believe  in  the  rea- 
sonableness of  the  world  it  is  idle  to  think  about  it 


yo  Reality  and  Monism 

at  all.  .  .  .  There  is  no  use  having  brains  without 
faith  and  courage." 

Still  more  impressive  is  the  following  passage, 
quoted  by  Professor  James  from  Benjamin  Paul 
Blood : 

"  The  highest  thought  is  not  a  milk  and  water 
equation  of  so  much  reason  and  so  much  result,  no 
school  sum  to  be  cast  up.  We  have  recognized  the 
highest  divine  thought  of  itself,  and  there  is  in  it  as 
much  of  wonder  as  of  certainty ;  inevitable  and  soli- 
tary and  safe  in  one  sense,  but  queer  and  cactus-like 
in  another.  It  appeals  unutterably  to  experience 
alone.  There  are  sadness  and  disenchantment  for 
the  novice  in  these  inferences  as  if  the  keynote  of 
the  universe  were  low.  Certainty  is  the  root  of 
despair.  The  inevitable  stales  while  doubt  and  hope 
are  sisters.  Not  unfortunately,  the  universe  is  wild, 
game-flavored  as  a  hawk's  wing.  Nature  is  miracle 
all.  She  knows  no  laws.  The  same  returns  not, 
but  to  bring  the  different.  The  slow  round  of  the 
engraver's  lathe  gains  but  the  breadth  of  a  hair,  but 
the  difference  is  distributed  back  over  the  whole 
curve,  never  an  instance  true — ever  not  quite! " 

The  universe  is  most  certainly  "  a  going  con- 
cern," to  use  William  Allen  White's  description  of 
American  democracy.  No  man,  no  day,  no  inci- 
dent has  ever  been  here  before,  almost,  always,  but 
never  quite  the  same.  Wherever  we  are,  and  in 
whatever  environment,  we  are  the  first  of  our 
dynasty,  "  We  are  the  first  that  ever  burst  into  this 


Reality  and  Monism  71 

silent  sea !  "  exclaims  James,  after  Coleridge.  The 
sea  was  silent  to  us,  at  least,  and  here  we  are  in  the 
midst  of  it.  It  is  a  "  going  concern,"  and  so  are 
we,  and  all  this  adds  to  our  interest  and  lends  spice 
to  the  experiences  which  follow  our  actions,  for  a 
good  deal,  to  us,  depends  on  our  behavior,  and  we 
shall  not  come  this  way  again. 

Fouillee  is  quoted  as  saying :  "  The  world  remains 
for  Science  a  broken  mirror,  while  Philosophy,  by 
piecing  together  the  fragments,  strives  to  catch 
glimpses  of  the  grand  image."  But  the  "  grand 
image  "  was  never  more  complete  than  now.  It  is 
becoming  ever  more  complete,  but  it  will  never  be 
finished,  and  science  knows  and  philosophy  may 
learn  that  the  completed  picture  never  was  and 
never  will  be — never  quite ! 

"  No  one  can  know  the  future,"  says  Voltaire, 
"  because  no  one  can  know  that  which  is  not." 

We  may  conceive  that  in  this  universe  of  his, 
even  the  Supreme  Being  may  feel  his  way  through 
the  intricacies  of  mutation,  astronomical,  geological, 
and  biological,  and  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of 
individual  free  will  and  social  clash.  History  is  not 
altogether  a  matter  of  inevitable  tendencies,  but  in 
part  it  is  made  up  as  it  goes  along.  "  History  re- 
peats itself  " — almost,  but  never  quite,  else  it  could 
not  hold  our  perennial  interest.  Its  operations  can- 
not be  foreseen  unless  they  are  foreordained,  and 
foreordination  is  the  most  hopeless  and  helpless  of 
dogmas.  The  leaf  has  its  foreordained  place  on 


72  Reality  and  Monism 

the  stem  because  it  could  not  possibly  have  grown 
anywhere  else.  If  it  could  have  grown  elsewhere, 
it  would  certainly  have  done  so.  Such  is  the  ob- 
stinate nature  of  leaves,  for  their  insertion  depends 
on  the  nature  of  their  buds,  and  the  buds  depend  on 
the  inherited  mode  of  growth  of  the  species.  But 
even  with  all  this,  every  leaf  has  a  bit  of  originality. 
Its  place  is  almost  fixed,  never  quite.  But  within 
the  narrow  range  of  what  we  call  its  law,  it  must 
confine  its  individuality.  Almost  foreordained,  but 
never  quite.  When  the  leaf  falls  it  has  more  lati- 
tude. Its  affairs  are  not  thus  prearranged.  The 
elements  are  just  as  insistent,  but  their  coming  to- 
gether is  temporary.  The  fall  of  the  leaf  depends 
on  the  coincidence  of  breeze  and  bacilli,  and  the 
loosening  of  the  leaf  from  its  stem.  That  the  leaf 
should  be  devoured  by  bird  or  caterpillar  is  not  a 
matter  predetermined  in  the  same  sense  as  the  form 
of  the  leaf  is  predestined,  or  the  place  it  must  as- 
sume on  the  stem.  These  matters  rest  on  the  long 
array  of  incidents  which  determine  the  nature  of 
the  species  of  tree  producing  the  leaf. 

All  these  incidents,  the  results  of  the  conflict  or 
co-operation  of  different  forces  or  impulses,  the  uni- 
verse must  encounter  or  complete  as  time  goes  on. 
They  are  not  part  of  the  "  law  before  all  time," 
whatever  that  phrase  may  prove  to  mean. 

Haeckel,  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  scientific 
apostles  of  monism,  finds  this  doctrine  adequate  not 
only  to  meet  the  demands  of  philosophy,  but  to 


Reality  and  Monism  73 

answer  the  questions  of  science.  His  confidence  in 
monism  gives  him  equal  confidence  in  those  sci- 
entific theories  which  he  regards  as  derived  from  it, 
because  they  seem  to  accord  with  it.  These  concep- 
tions Haeckel  calls  "  Articles  of  Faith."  These 
articles  of  faith  concern  matters  of  science  which 
come  sooner  or  later  within  the  range  of  human 
experience,  and  to  be  stated  in  terms  of  human 
action.  By  these  tests  of  science  the  articles  of 
faith  stand  or  fall.  If  monism  belongs  to  science, 
and  these  "  articles  of  faith  "  are  among  its  real 
corollaries,  the  philosophic  conception  must  stand 
or  fall  with  them.  If  monism  cannot  be  tested 
somewhere,  somehow,  the  great  generalization  has 
its  place  somewhere  outside  of  science. 

First  among  these  postulates  of  monism,  or 
"  articles  of  faith  "  in  Haeckel's  scheme,  comes  the 
"  essential  unity  of  organic  and  inorganic  nature, 
the  former  having  been  evolved  from  the  latter  only 
at  a  relatively  recent  period."  We  may  admit  that 
organic  life  is  relatively  recent,  and  that  inorganic 
nature  has  existed  longer.  But  we  know  nothing 
whatever  of  how  life  began.  Whether  life  is  a 
matter  of  organization  and  chemistry,  or  whether  it 
has  an  element  which  transcends  all  material  forces 
no  one  can  really  say.  It  is  more  easy  to  argue 
against  any  special  theory  of  mechanism  or  vitalism, 
than  to  build  up  constructive  arguments  adequate 
to  turn  the  scale  in  favor  of  either.  As  Professor 
Brooks  has  said,  "  We  shall  never  know  which  of 


74  Reality  and  Monism 

these  hypotheses  is  true  until  we  find  out."  Those 
who  begin  with  the  thesis  that  "life  is  nothing  but 
chemism  "  often  end,  as  Driesch  has  done,  with  the 
belief  that  vital  force  transcends  chemism,  and  that 
life  is  itself  one  of  the  primal  forces  of  creation. 
Those  who  reverse  this  thesis,  claiming  that  chem- 
ism includes  all  we  know  as  vital  force,  find  them- 
selves obliged  to  shift  their  theory  under  the 
pressure  of  facts.  No  view  of  the  ultimate  nature 
of  life  is  yet  a  finality.  Only  as  a  corollary  of  mon- 
ism does  any  hypothesis  as  to  the  essence  of  life  find 
a  permanent  resting-place. 

That  monism  demands  spontaneous  generation  in 
itself  proves  nothing.  We  believe  without  knowl- 
edge when  we  assert  that  life  first  arose  through 
natural  chemical  action,  the  generation  of  living 
from  inorganic  matter.  Haeckel  further  resolves 
life  activity  or  the  movement  and  change  in  proto- 
plasm into  properties  shown  by  certain  carbon  com- 
pounds under  certain  conditions.  Life  in  this  sense 
is  an  "  emanation  of  carbon,"  "  the  true  maker  of 
life,"  according  to  Haeckel,  "  being  the  tetrahedral 
carbon  molecule."  The  "mystery  of  life"  is, 
therefore,  removed  by  placing  it  one  degree  further 
away  from  the  known  facts,  with  an  area  of  pure 
speculation  between.  Across  this  area,  untouched 
by  human  experience,  science  cannot  extend  itself. 
In  science,  a  position  which  cannot  be  attacked  on 
the  basis  of  observation  or  experiment  cannot  be 
defended.  Castles  in  cloudland  are  impregnable. 


Reality  and  Monism  75 

Theories  impregnable  can  be  attacked  only  when 
they  can  be  verified,  when  they  are  made  sufficiently 
definite  to  be  the  basis  of  positive  predictions  as  to 
the  outcome  of  experiments. 

The  long  dispute  as  to  mechanism  and  vitalism 
cannot  end  in  a  victory  of  one  side  or  the  other.  If 
processes  of  life  are  included  under  "  chemism," 
then  "  chemism "  is  not  a  perfectly  simple  and 
transparent  idea.  It  must  include  all  the  complex- 
ities gathered  together  under  the  term  vitalism. 
Life  is  so  different  from  anything  which  would  be 
inferred  from  a  knowledge  of  the  simpler  phenom- 
ena of  chemistry  or  physics,  that  it  seems  to  call  for 
special  terms  and  special  explanations.  Hence  the 
disposition  to  segregate  the  complex  phenomena  of 
life  as  vitalism.  But  chemical  forces  are  adequate 
to  produce  whatever  effects  chemical  forces  can  be 
shown  to  produce.  "  If  the  mystery  of  causal  se- 
quence is  the  same  everywhere,  nothing  is  gained 
for  explanatory  purposes  by  exaggerating  it  at  one 
place  and  then  giving  it  a  name." 

Another  "  article  of  faith  "  in  Haeckel's  system  is 
that  of  the  identity  of  matter  and  force.  Neither  ap- 
pears without  the  other.  But  we  know  likewise  that 
the  inside  of  a  sphere  never  appears  without  the 
outside,  or  the  peach  without  the  skin,  the  melon 
without  the  rind.  Therefore,  in  each  case  we  might 
argue  that  the  two  are  identical.  In  a  large  sense 
they  are,  but  not  in  all  senses. 

More     directly     subject     to    scientific     tests     is 


j6  Reality  and  Monism 

Haeckel's  claim  that  all  chemical  substances  are 
really  one,  all  being  derived  from  the  supposed 
primitive  substances,  protyl.  Monism  further  de- 
mands, according  to  Haeckel,  the  evolutionary  unity 
of  all  life.  Still  more  explicitly,  it  demands  belief 
in  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  in  the 
process  of  heredity. 

Now  all  these  theories  may  be  true,  but  until  they 
have  borne  the  test  of  action,  they  are  not  yet  true. 
It  is  not  clear  that  science  is  advanced  by  making 
them  matters  of  "  pious  belief "  or  "  articles  of 
faith,"  before  they  are  proved  through  observation 
and  experiment. 

That  all  ponderable  matter  is  of  one  primitive 
stuff  may  be  the  fact.  Already  the  atom  has  been 
subdivided  into  minor  units.  Already  some  forms 
of  matter  change  their  nature  under  spontaneous 
activity,  appearing  as  something  very  different. 
But  gold  remains  gold  and  hydrogen  remains  hy- 
drogen, and  most  forms  of  matter  seem  neither  sub- 
ject to  radio-active  change,  nor  to  any  other  form 
of  evolution.  To  all  tests  of  science  there  is  still 
an  impassable  gap  between  platinum  and  oxygen, 
between  radium  and  iron,  between  potassium  and 
carbon,  or  even  between  potassium  and  the  very 
similar  substance  or  neighbor,  sodium.  Affinities, 
resemblances,  and  parallelisms  exist,  but  we  have 
nowhere  among  these  elements  found  identity  of 
substance  nor  identity  of  origin.  Science  cannot 
bridge  these  chasms,  until  a  bridge  is  made.  If  we 


Reality  and  Monism  77 

cross  over,  without  a  bridge,  it  must  be  by  some 
means  outside  of  science. 

In  a  general  way,  men  have  found  out  that  the 
processes  of  nature  are  more  complex  than  men 
in  earlier  times  had  supposed,  while  the  elements 
concerned  in  these  processes  are  often  more  simple. 
But  this  generalization  goes  no  further  than  the 
facts  go.  Science  stops  where  the  facts  stop,  and 
speculation  cannot  safely  proceed  any  farther.  To 
every  test  human  experience  has  devised,  chemical 
substances  retain  their  nature,  their  ultimate  par- 
ticles being  unchangeable  as  well  as  indestructible. 
Therefore,  to  speak  of  these  as  forms  of  one 
substance  is  to  go  beyond  knowledge.  Science 
does  not  teach  this.  But  the  idea  may  be  plausible, 
or  even  logical,  as  a  conception  of  philosophy, 
It  is  quite  conceivable  that  by  some  combina- 
tion of  primitive  units,  the  variant  chemical  atoms 
are  formed.  Recent  investigation  may  even  tend 
in  this  direction,  however  far  it  may  be  from  reach- 
ing the  supposed  final  goal.  If  this  conception  be 
really  truth,  it  must,  sooner  or  later,  be  carried  out 
into  action.  Lead  may  then  be  resolved  into  its 
primitive  elements,  and  these  elements  may  be  re- 
united in  the  form  of  gold.  "  The  dream  of  one 
age  "  is  said  to  be  "  the  science  of  the  next,"  and 
when  lead  is  really  transmuted,  the  dream  of  the 
alchemist  will  become  fact.  Yes,  but  not  until 
then,  and  this  is  the  most  important  phase  of  the 
matter.  Such  transmutation  is  as  yet  no  part  of 


78  Reality  and  Monism 

knowledge.  That  it  may  seem  probable  or  likely, 
or  to  have  logical  continuity  with  other  generaliza- 
tions, gives  it  no  standing  in  science.  The  spec- 
ulation on  which  it  rests  is  a  bold  one,  overbold 
and,  therefore,  at  present  useless. 

The  essential  unity  of  life  has  some  claim  to  be 
called  a  fact  of  science,  for  it  can  be  in  part 
inductively  verified.  The  derivation  of  existing 
forms  from  pre-existing  species  through  processes 
of  divergence  and  adaptation  is  as  nearly  established 
as  truth  as  any  generalization  can  be.  By  the 
operation  of  variation  in  heredity,  and  variation 
with  heredity,  with  the  sifting  of  the  environment, 
life  has  been  split  up  into  countless  strains.  By  the 
process  of  selection,  those  strains  fitted  to  the  en- 
vironment have  survived,  and  by  means  of  geo- 
graphical and  other  separation,  countless  variations 
have  survived  in  parallel  series. 

Again,  Haeckel  claims  that,  as  an  article  of  faith, 
monism  demands  belief  in  spontaneous  generation. 
This  theory  has  been  the  subject  of  numberless  ex- 
periments, none  of  thern,  perhaps,  finally  conclusive. 
They  yield  negative  results,  and  a  negation  rarely 
puts  a  final  end  to  any  conception.  On  the  face  of 
things,  spontaneous  generation,  like  the  transmuta- 
tion of  metals,  seems  reasonable  enough.  It  seems 
less  reasonable  when  we  get  close  to  the  facts.  The 
one  idea  has  been  the  will-o'-the-wisp  of  biology,  as 
the  other  has  been  of  chemistry.  We  know  of  no 
case  in  which  spontaneous  generation  can  possibly 


Reality  and  Monism  79 

have  occurred.  We  know  nothing  of  how — if 
ever — non-life  becomes  life.  So  far  as  our  experi- 
ence goes,  so  far  as  science  can  see  or  feel,  genera- 
tion from  first  to  last  is  a  continuous  series — all  life 
from  life.  We  can  devise  no  conditions  under 
which  spontaneous  generation  takes  place,  or  in 
which  it  seems  likely  to  most  of  us  that  it  can  take 
place.  If  spontaneous  generation  should  take  place 
we  should  have  no  way  of  knowing  it.  All  the  or- 
ganisms we  know  have  had  a  long  history.  Even 
the  simplest  moneron  shows  traces  of  a  long  an- 
cestry, of  long-continued  cell-subdivision,  a  long  ex- 
posure to  natural  selection,  of  many  concessions  to 
environment.  We  know  of  no  living  organism  that 
does  not  show  abundant  traces  of  such  concessions. 
We  know  of  no  way  by  which  adaptation  or  obedi- 
ence to  demands  of  environment  has  been  produced 
save  by  the  long-continued  selection  of  the  adapt- 
able. We  know  of  no  organism  that  does  not  show 
large  homologies  with  a  multitude  of  other  kinds  or 
species  of  organisms.  We  know  of  no  source  of 
homology  save  blood-relationship.  The  analogies 
point  toward  the  origin  of  all  life  from  one  common 
stock,  a  single  generation  or  a  single  individual. 
All  this  would  show,  not  that  spontaneous  genera- 
tion is  impossible,  but  that  we  have,  as  yet,  no  con- 
ception as  to  the  conditions  of  any  of  its  occur- 
rence. If  living  organisms  now  appear  otherwise 
than  by  a  process  of  cleavage  of  unit  of  energy  from 
some  living  organism,  the  casting-  off  of  a  germ- 


80  Reality  and  Monism 

cell,  if  living  structures  fresh  from  the  mint  of 
creation  are  now  developed  from  matter  not  living, 
we  should  have  no  possible  means  of  recognizing 
them.  They  would  be  so  simple  that  we  could  not 
detect  their  living  nature.  They  would  doubtless 
be  so  small  that  we  could  not  find  them.  They 
would  consist,  we  may  suppose,  each  of  but  a  small 
number  of  molecules,  perhaps  but  two  or  three.  If 
there  is  truth  in  the  suggestion  of  Lord  Kelvin  that 
a  molecule  in  a  drop  of  water  is  as  small  as  a 
marble  in  comparison  with  the  earth,  we  should 
have  no  way  of  searching  for  such  creatures.  If 
we  cannot  find  them,  we  cannot  know  that  they  ex- 
ist. If  we  do  not  know  that  they  exist,  shall  we 
believe  that  they  do?  Or  is  it  better,  as  Emerson 
suggests,  that  men  should  not  "  pretend  to  know 
and  believe  what  they  do  not  really  know  and  be- 
lieve"? 

It  may  be  that  the  fact  that  life  now  exists  on 
the  world  and  that  geology  seems  to  show  that  its 
condition  was  once  such  as  to  make  life  impossible, 
implies  "  spontaneous  generation  "  as  a  logical  neces- 
sity. If  there  was  a  beginning  of  life,  some  form 
of  beginning  was  doubtless  a  "  logical  necessity." 
But  this  "  logical  necessity  "  lies  in  our  statement 
of  the  case,  not  in  nature.  Logical  necessity  does 
not  compel  assent  until  we  are  able  to  compass  all 
the  possibilities  in  any  given  case.  We  know  .too 
little  of  the  conditions  before  life  appeared  on  the 
globe  to  venture  any  guess  as  to  how  life  began. 


Reality  and  Monism  81 

Doubtless  it  began  somehow,  and  it  had  a  natural 
origin,  that  is,  an  origin  with  •  an  adequate  cause 
behind  it. 

The  heredity  of  inborn  characters  is  a  matter  of 
daily  observation.  The  heredity  of  acquired  char- 
acters, the  hypothesis  of  "  progressive  evolution," 
the  inheritance  from  generation  to  generation  of  the 
results  of  use  and  devise  and  the  impact  of  en- 
vironment on  the  individual,  is  another  of  Haeckel's 
"  articles  of  faith."  But  it  is  not  one  of  the  cer- 
tainties of  science.  Observation  and  experiment 
have  alike  failed  to  give  it  verification.  That  it  is 
an  "  article  of  faith  "  derived  from  a  speculative 
hypothesis  lends  it  no  probability  whatever.  Our 
judgment  must  depend  on  the  results  of  human  ex- 
perience, tested  and  set  in  order.  The  matter  stands 
exactly  where  it  did  before.  It  is  within  the  realm 
of  human  experience,  and  by  such  experience  it  must 
be  tested.  If  the  doctrine  is  vulnerable  to  philo- 
sophic weapons  alone,  its  fate  is  no  concern  of 
science. 

The  question  of  monism  can  have  little  actual 
relation  to  science  or  human  life.  If  we  cannot  test 
the  monism  by  observation  or  experiment  of  one 
sort  or  another,  no  conclusion  we  reach  has  any 
actual  validity.  If  neither  result  nor  method  can 
be  woven  into  the  conduct  of  life,  the  question 
as  to  whether  we  are  "  monists  "  or  "  pluralists," 
or  theorists  of  some  other  sort,  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  temperament  or  of  individual  preference, 


82  Reality  and  Monism 

rather  than  a  necessity  of  science.  Pluralism  has  this 
advantage  that  it  occupies  the  field  as  a  working 
hypothesis  in  line  with  the  facts  of  experience,  while 
monism  remains  unproved  and  logically  more  or 
less  unfruitful.  Pluralism,  on  the  surface,  is  true, 
and  we  deal  with  surfaces.  "  The  systematic  unity 
of  reality  "  is  another  definition  or  phase  of  mon- 
ism. It  is  fine  to  believe  in  such  systematic  unity, 
but  it  is  just  as  satisfactory  to  believe  the  reverse, 
whatever  that  is,  for  we  have  no  way  of  putting 
any  part  of  its  system  to  a  test.  In  what  way  would 
our  universe  differ  if  its  realities,  theoretically  in 
unity,  were  actually  not  so  ? 

"  All  realities  influence  our  practice,"  Professor 
James  quotes  from  Ostwald,  "  and  the  influence  is 
their  meaning  for  us.  I  am  accustomed  to  put 
questions  to  my  classes  in  this  way:  In  what  re- 
spects would  the  world  be  different  if  this  alterna- 
tive or  that  were  true?  If  I  can  find  nothing  that 
would  become  different,  then  the  alternative  has  no 
sense."  "  That  is,"  says  James,  "  the  rival  views 
mean  practically  the  same  thing,  and  meaning  other 
than  practical,  there  is  for  us  none.  Ostwald  gives 
this  example  of  what  he  means.  Chemists  have 
long  wrangled  over  the  inner  constitution  of  certain 
bodies  called  tautomerous.  Their  properties  seemed 
equally  consistent  with  the  idea  that  an  unstable 
hydrogen  atom  oscillates  inside  of  them,  or  with 
the  idea  that  they  are  unstable  mixtures  of  two 
bodies.  Controversy  raged,  but  never  was  decided. 


Reality  and  Monism  83 

'  It  would  never  have  begun,'  said  Ostwald,  *  if  the 
combatants  had  asked  themselves  what  particular 
experimental  fact  could  have  been  made  different 
by  one  or  the  other  view  being  correct.'  If  it  would 
then  have  appeared  that  no  difference  of  fact  could 
possibly  ensue,  and  the  quarrel  was  as  unreal  as 
if  theorizing  in  primitive  times  about  the  raising  of 
dough  by  yeast,  one  party  should  have  invoked  a 
brownie,  while  another  insisted  on  an  elf  as  the 
cause  of  the  phenomenon." 

Professor  James  continues :  "  It  is  astonishing  to 
see  how  many  philosophical  disputes  (and  we  may 
add  scientific  disputes  as  well)  collapse  into  insig- 
nificance the  moment  you  subject  them  to  this  sim- 
ple test  of  tracing  a  concrete  consequence.  There 
can  be  no  difference  anywhere  that  does  not  make  a 
difference  elsewhere;  no  difference  in  abstract  truth 
that  does  not  express  itself  in  a  difference  in  concrete 
fact;  and  in  conduct  consequent  on  that  fact  im- 
posed on  somebody,  somehow,  somewhere,  and 
some  when.  The  whole  function  of  philosophy 
ought  to  be  to  find  out  what  definite  difference  it 
will  make  to  you  and  me,  at  definite  instants  in  our 
life,  if  this  world  formula  or  that  world  formula 
be  the  right  one." 

The  spectroscope  tells  us  of  the  compositions  of 
the  distant  stars,  stars  we  have  never  seen  and  can 
never  see,  stars  whose  light  reaches  us  centuries 
after  the  spreading  waves  of  ether  diverged  from 
the  star  itself.  Of  what  practical  use  to  us  to  know 


84  Reality  and  Monism 

that  Zeta  Draconis  has  hydrogen  in  its  atmosphere  ? 
None,  no  doubt,  except  as  a  factor  in  the  broad- 
ening of  our  minds,  the  clarifying  of  our  con- 
ception of  relative  values  in  the  universe.  But 
the  methods  by  which  this  knowledge  is  won  are  in- 
tensely practical.  Not  alone  that  we  use  the  spec- 
troscope as  well  in  the  manufacture  of  steel,  but 
rather  that  we  use  its  methods  in  the  affairs  of 
human  life.  The  spectroscope  is  one  of  science's 
instruments  of  precision,  and  precision  lies  at  the 
heart  of  the  progress  of  human  civilization. 

Men  have  struggled  for  ages  over  the  symbolism 
of  the  Eucharist.  Is  it  a  matter  of  unity  or  of 
identity?  Is  it  homoousion  or,  perchance,  only 
homoiousion?  Who  can  tell  at  the  end  of  the  con- 
troversy any  more  than  at  the  beginning?  In  what 
way  does  a  conclusion  affect  our  view  of  the  uni- 
verse? In  what  way  does  it  affect  the  conduct  of 
man  ?  It  is  not  necessary  to  follow  this  with  further 
illustrations.  If  the  motto,  "  nihil  nemini  nocet," 
"  nothing  hurts  nobody,"  ascribed  to  a  certain  cult 
of  faith-healing,  is  valid,  then  nobody  need  worry 
about  nothing,  and  Science  can  turn  her  attention 
to  realities.  For,  somehow,  somewhere,  or  some 
when  every  reality  will  leave  its  mark  on  human 
conduct. 

Referring  again  to  the  conception  of  monism,  sci- 
ence can  have  no  quarrel  with  it,  except  that  it  can 
make  nothing  definite  out  of  it.  Monism  does  not 
appear  as  a  proved  or  partly  proved  or  even  as  a 


Reality  and  Monism  85 

plausible  fact,  nor  is  it  clear  that  it  constitutes  an 
hypothesis  which,  being  put  to  the  test,  will  conduct 
us  to  the  things  we  want  to  know.  If,  when  put  to 
the  test  of  experiment,  it  yields,  as  inductive  truths, 
the  scientific  articles  of  faith  associated  with  it,  the 
philosophy  would  be  justified  by  its  results.  The- 
ories of  organic  evolution  have  justified  themselves 
in  this  fashion.  But  thus  far  monism  stands  in  a 
world  apart.  The  same  is  true  of  the  conception  of 
pantheism,  as  related  to  the  world  of  action.  It  is 
not  easy  to  conceive  of  monism  or  pantheism  as  be- 
ing true  or  false.  We  need  feel  no  prejudice 
against  either.  They  lend  themselves  to  poetry. 
They  appeal  to  our  emotions.  In  Haeckel's  own 
words,  used  in  reference  to  conventional  religious 
conceptions,  "  Such  hereditary  articles  of  faith 
take  root  all  the  more  firmly  the  further  they  are 
removed  from  a  rational  knowledge  of  Nature  and 
enveloped  in  the  mysterious  mantle  of  mythological 
poesy." 

It  is  to  us  as  poets,  rather  than  as  men  of  sci- 
ence, that  these  doctrines  appeal.  By  and  by  in  the 
circuit  of  philosophic  thought,  the  present  resistance 
to  these  ideas  may  be  turned  again  into  devoted 
reverence  for  them.  For  none  of  all  the  philosophic 
doctrine,  brought  down  as  lightning  from  heaven 
for  the  guidance  of  plodding  man,  seems  more  up- 
lifting than  that  of  the  unity  of  existence  and  the 
universal  presence  of  deity.  None  is  less  likely  to 
be  trampled  under  foot  in  the  rush  of  common  life. 


86  Reality  and  Monism 

But  shall  we  give  these  doctrines  belief?  Not  if 
we  have  to  accept  any  of  their  corollaries  or  deriva- 
tives on  any  terms  except  on  their  own  particular 
evidence.  Haeckel  recognizes  clearly  enough  the 
difference  between  fact  in  hand  and  fact  hoped  for. 
He  uses  the  term  belief  for  "  hypotheses  or  con- 
jectures by  which  the  gaps  empirical  investigation 
must  leave  in  science  are  filled  up."  "  These,"  he 
says,  "  we  cannot,  indeed,  for  a  time  establish  on 
a  secure  basis,  and  yet  we  may  make  use  of  them 
in  the  way  of  explaining  phenomena,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  not  inconsistent  with  a  rational  knowledge 
of  Nature."  "  Such  rational  hypotheses,"  he  says, 
"  are  scientific  Articles  of  Faith." 

Gladstone  somewhere  uses  a  parallel  expression. 
He  speaks  of  certain  doctrines  as  not  yet  a  part 
of  knowledge,  yet  so  well  supported  that  they  may 
"  bear  the  weight  of  belief."  Belief,  then,  is  not 
what  we  know,  but  what  we  logically  hope  to 
know,  in  view  of  human  experiences  available  to  us. 

It  would  not  seem  necessary  to  take  so  large  a 
term  as  faith  or  belief  for  working  hypotheses 
confessedly  unproved  or  transient.  The  phrase 
"  make-believe,"  used  by  Huxley  in  similar  connec- 
tion, fits  the  case  better.  As  men  of  science  we  can- 
not believe  any  hypothetic  "  articles  of  faith  "  not 
resting  on  scientific  induction.  Dealing  with  my 
own  experience,  and  that  of  the  race,  I  ought  not 
to  say,  "  I  believe,"  when  I  cannot  say  "  I  know." 
I  should  not  believe  when  I  cannot  trust.  I  should 


Reality  and  Monism  87 

put  off  the  livery  of  science  when  I  enter  the  abode 
of  the  Delphian  Oracles. 

That  those  "  articles  of  faith "  named  by 
Haeckel  are  necessarily  derived  from  monism  is  cer- 
tainly open  to  doubt.  Monism  as  a  philosophic  con- 
ception can  have  no  practical  corollaries.  Its  conclu- 
sions are  all  involved  in  its  definition.  If  its  defini- 
tion involves  nothing  that  can  be  tested  by  experi- 
ment or  wrought  into  action,  it  is  outside  the  field  of 
knowledge.  Doubtless  monism  would  still  flourish 
were  all  its  "  articles  of  faith  "  disproved.  If  so, 
it  has  no  part  in  science,  for  science  deals  with 
classified  realities  in  human  life.  It  belongs  to 
philosophy  and  to  poetry,  both  legitimate  activities 
of  the  human  mind,  although  not  primarily  con- 
cerned with  knowledge. 

If,  however,  monism  rests  actually  on  human  ex- 
perience it  must  be  tested  by  scientific  methods. 
Until  it  is  so  tested,  however  attractive  or  however 
plausible  it  may  seem,  it  has  no  working  value. 
There  is  no  gain  in  giving  it  belief  or  in  calling  it 
truth.  Still  less  should  we  stultify  ourselves  by  pin- 
ning our  faith  to  its  postulates  as  to  matters  yet  to 
be  decided  by  experiment,  and  to  be  settled  by 
human  experiment  only.  Haeckel  says,  for  exam- 
ple :  "  The  inheritance  of  characters  acquired  dur- 
ing the  life  of  the  individual  is  an  indispensable 
axiom  of  the  monistic  doctrine  of  evolution.  Those 
who,  with  Weismann  and  Galton,  deny  this,  entirely 
exclude  thereby  the  possibility  of  any  formative  in- 


88  Reality  and  Monism 

fluence  of  the  outer  world  upon  organic  form." 
Here  we  may  ask:  Who  knows  that  there  is  any 
such  formative  influence?  What  do  we  know  of 
this  or  any  other  subject  beyond  what,  in  our  in- 
vestigations, we  find  to  be  true?  When  was  mon- 
ism a  subject  of  special  revelation,  and  with  what 
credentials  does  it  come,  that  one  of  the  greatest 
controversies  in  modern  science  should  be  settled  by 
its  simple  word  ? 

We  must  beware  of  paths  to  knowledge  as  to  mat- 
ters of  fact,  which  save  us  the  labor  of  inductive 
verification.  As  Emerson  observes,  we  should  avoid 
"  all  short  cuts  to  truth  as  we  would  shun  the  secrets 
of  the  undertaker." 

Nearly  all  of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
heredity  of  acquired  characters,  as  well  as  very 
many  of  those  in  favor  of  the  opposed  dogma  of 
the  unchanged  continuity  of  the  germ  plasm,  are 
based  on  some  supposed  logical  necessity  of  philoso- 
phy. Logical  necessities  are  valueless  in  the  light 
of  fact.  Desmarest  once  suggested  to  the  contend- 
ing advocates  of  Neptunism  and  Plutonism  to  "  Go 
and  see."  When  they  had  seen  the  action  of  water 
and  the  action  of  heat,  as  he  had  seen  them  among 
the  volcanoes  of  Auvergne,  the  contest  was  over. 
Argument  and  contention  had  vanished  in  the  face 
of  fact.  To  believe  without  foundation  is  to 
discredit  knowledge.  Scientific  "  confessions  of 
faith  "  show  a  zeal  to  believe  which  cheapens  the 
power  to  know.  Greater  than  the  courage  of  one's 


Reality  and  Monism  89 

convictions  may  be  the  courage  of  patience  where 
convictions  are  not  yet  attainable. 

"  Science,"  says  Richard  T.  Colburn,  "  does  not 
concern  itself  with  teleological  suppositions.  It  is 
reluctant  to  resort  to  any  of  them  to  explain  the 
observed  cosmos.  It  prefers  to  listen  in  neutral 
attitude  to  the  rival  philosophies — theism,  maniche- 
ism,  atheism,  monism,  spiritism,  or  materialism — 
but  it  is  at  least  equally  well  equipped  to  pass 
judgment  on  such  speculations  as  their  advo- 
cates." 

Again,  if  we  are  to  allow  the  revision  of  the  gen- 
eralizations of  science  by  the  addition  of  acceptable 
but  unverified  doctrines,  we  must  allow  the  right 
of  similar  revision  by  rejection.  Mr.  Wallace,  for 
example,  would  be  justified  in  adding  to  the  cer- 
tainties of  organic  evolution  his  idea  of  the  special 
creation  of  the  mind  of  man  while  the  body  was 
separately  developed  under  natural  law.  The  old 
notion  of  the  separate  existence  of  the  ego,  which 
plays  on  the  nerve  cells  of  the  brain  as  a  musician 
on  the  keys  of  the  piano,  would  still  linger  in  psy- 
chology. The  astral  body  would  hover  on  the  verge 
of  physiology  and  the  disembodied  soul  still  go  on 
its  pilgrimages  to  Devachan. 

I  have  a  scientific  friend  who  finds  it  necessary 
to  exclude  by  force  from  his  biological  beliefs  all 
that  is  unpleasant  in  the  theories  of  evolution.  And 
he  has  the  same  right  to  do  this  that  Professor 
Haeckel  has  to  insist  that  any  scientific  beliefs,  for 


90  Reality  and  Monism 

which  science  has  yet  no  warrant,  are  a  necessary 
part  of  the  orthodoxy  of  science. 

For  Haeckel,  one  of  the  greatest  of  teachers,  a 
man  of  fine  strong  personality,  is  sometimes  a  bit 
dogmatic.  In  his  treatment  of  monism,  he  is  not 
content  to  speak  for  himself,  asking  tolerance  by 
tolerance  toward  others.  His  belief  is  no  idiosyn- 
crasy of  his  own  which  he  keeps  to  himself.  He 
speaks  for  all.  Every  honest,  intelligent,  cour- 
ageous scientific  man,  he  tells  us,  so  far  as  he  is 
truthful,  competent,  and  brave,  shares  the  same  be- 
lief. His  confession  of  faith  is  nothing  if  not 
orthodox.  He  says : 

"  This  monistic  confession  has  the  greater  claim 
to  an  unprejudiced  consideration  in  that  it  is  shared, 
I  am  firmly  convinced,  by  at  least  nine-tenths  of 
the  men  of  science  now  living;  indeed,  I  believe,  by 
all  men  of  science  in  whom  the  following  four  con- 
ditions are  realized  :  ( i )  sufficient  acquaintance  with 
the  various  departments  of  natural  science,  and  in 
particular  with  the  modern  doctrine  of  evolution ; 
(2)  sufficient  acuteness  and  clearness  of  judgment 
to  draw,  by  induction  and  deduction,  the  necessary 
logical  consequences  that  flow  from  such  empirical 
knowledge:  (3)  sufficient  moral  courage  to  main- 
tain the  monistic  knowledge  so  gained  against  the 
attacks  of  hostile  dualistic  and  pluralistic  systems; 
and  (4)  sufficient  strength  of  mind  to  free  himself, 
by  sound,  independent  reasoning,  from  dominant 
religious  prejudices,  and  especially  from  those  ir- 


Reality  and  Monism  91 

rational  dogmas  which  have  been  firmly  lodged  in 
our  minds  from  earliest  youth  as  indisputable  rev- 
elations." 

'Against  such  assumption  science  may  protest. 
We  have  nothing  against  the  doctrines  save  that 
they  are  not  yet  proved  true.  In  themselves,  as  I 
have  said,  they  are  attractive.  One  may  naturally 
feel  a  hopeful  interest  in  wide-reaching  theories 
which  seem  plausible,  but  are  still  unproved  or  un- 
workable. This  is,  however,  not  "  belief."  It  is 
rather  open-mindedness,  open  to  negative  evidence 
as  well  as  to  positive. 

As  science  goes  wherever  the  facts  lead,  so  sci- 
ence must  stop  where  the  facts  stop.  It  cannot  add 
to  its  methods  the  running  high  jump,  nor  place 
the  divining  rod  with  the  microscope,  crucible,  and 
calculus  among  its  instruments  of  precision.  Be- 
yond the  range  of  scientific  knowledge  extend  the 
working  and  the  unworkable  hypotheses.  Beyond 
the  confines  of  all  these  extend  the  universe  of  the 
mind,  the  boundless  realm  which  is  the  abode  of 
philosophy.  We  must  ask  of  each  hypothesis :  Is  it 
capable  of  being  put  to  the  test?  Is  it  fruitful  of 
results  when  tested?  If  tested  and  fruitful,  such 
hypotheses  belong  to  the  category  of  science,  and 
nothing  is  added  to  their  dignity  or  respectability 
by  making  them  into  dogmas  or  "  articles  of 
faith." 

The  primal  motive  of  science  is  to  regulate  the 
conduct  of  life.  This  is  in  a  sense  its  ultimate 


92  Reality  and  Monism 

end,  for  it  is  the  first  and  the  last  function  of  the 
senses  and  the  intellect.  "  Still  men  and  nations 
reap  as  they  have  strewn."  The  history  of  human 
thought  is  filled  with  the  rise  of  doctrines,  laws, 
and  generalizations,  not  drawn  from  human  experi- 
ence and  not  sanctioned  by  science.  The  attempt  to 
use  these  ideas  as  a  basis  of  human  action  has  been 
a  fruitful  source  of  human  misery. 

"  Consistent  materialism,"  says  Dr.  William  E. 
Ritter,  "  consistent  idealism  and  occultism  are  one 
finally  in  their  abandonment  of  experimental  knowl- 
edge." 

"  Better  any  fragment  of  cerebral  philosophy," 
says  William  Lowe  Bryan,  "  which  is  true,  though 
by  itself  unable  to  tell  what  any  one  is  to  do, 
than  a  study  of  human  character  which  tells  every 
one  what  to  do,  but  is  not  true." 

The  advances  of  science  are  all  made  along  indi- 
rect lines  by  the  comparison  and  extension  of  ex- 
periences, rarely  by  striking  out  directly  toward  the 
final  result.  For  no  one  can  foretell  in  what  di- 
rection the  final  result  may  lie. 

Science  bids  us  follow  the  line  in  which  our  de- 
finable needs  for  knowledge,  practical  and  theoret- 
ical, may  urge  us  on.  Conceptions  thus  obtained 
will  of  necessity  be  livable,  either  as  guides  or  as 
warnings  in  the  conduct  of  life.  The  truth  is  found 
in  the  tested  induction  from  human  experience. 
Other  conceptions,  deductions,  or  imaginations  do 
not  much  matter.  As  science  advances  these  no- 


Reality  and  Monism  93 

tions  are  left  along  the  road,  impedimenta,  to  be 
later  picked  up  and  classified  by  history,  in  whose 
hands  they  acquire  a  fresh  interest,  as  human 
documents  in  the  intellectual  progress  of  the 
race. 


IV 
REALITY  AND  ILLUSION 

"  Whoever  will  contribute  any  touch  of  sharpness  will  help 
us  to  make  sure  of  what's  what  and  who's  who." — WILLIAM 
JAMES. 

"  A  few  clear  ideas  are  worth  more  than  many  confused 
ones.  A  young  man  will  hardly  be  persuaded  to  sacrifice  the 
greater  part  of  his  thoughts  to  save  the  rest,  and  the  mud- 
dled head  is  the  least  apt  to  see  the  necessity  of  such  sacrifice. 

"  It  is  terrible  to  see  how  a  single  unclear  idea,  a  single 
formula  without  meaning,  lurking  in  a  young  man's  head,  will 
sometimes  act  like  an  obstruction  of  inert  matter  in  an  artery, 
hindering  the  nutrition  of  the  brain,  and  condemning  its 
victim  to  pine  away  in  the  fullness  of  his  intellectual  vigor 
and  in  the  midst  of  intellectual  plenty.  Many  a  man  has 
cherished  for  years  as  his  hobby  some  vague  shadow  of  an 
idea,  too  meaningless  to  be  positively  false.  He  has,  never- 
theless, passionately  loved  it,  has  made  it  his  companion  by 
day  and  by  night,  and  has  given  to  it  his  strength  and  his 
life,  leaving  all  other  occupations  for  its  sake,  and,  in  short, 
has  lived  with  it  and  for  it,  until  it  has  become,  as  it  were, 
flesh  of  his  flesh  and  bone  of  his  bone ;  and  then  he  has  waked 
up  some  bright  morning  to  find  it  gone,  clean  vanished  away 
like  the  beautiful  Melusina  of  the  fable,  and  the  essence  of 
his  life  gone  with  it.  Who  can  say  how  many  histories  of 
circle-squarers,  metaphysicians,  astrologers,  and  what  not, 
may  not  be  told  in  the  old  German  story  ?  " — CHARLES  SAN- 
DERS PEIRCE. 

"  Better  not  to  know  so  much  than  to  know  so  much  that 
is  not  true." — JOSH  BILLINGS. 

95 


96  Reality  and  Illusion 

THE  word  Truth  is  used  with  many  different 
meanings.  A  description  of  an  isolated  fact 
is,  in  one  sense  of  the  word,  a  truth.  A  correct  ac- 
count of  any  sense-impression,  stated  in  terms  of 
common  human  experience,  is  a  truth.  Again,  a 
truth  may  be  a  judgment  of  an  ascertained  relation 
between  one  object  and  another,  or  it  may  be  more 
than  this,  an  exact  quantitative  estimate  of  such  re- 
lation. If  the  relation  be  one  of  cause  and  effect,  the 
truth  becomes  a  generalization.  If  the  generalization 
be  adequately  verified,  involving  a  multitude  of  facts 
or  of  truths  of  a  lower  rank,  it  becomes  in  the  high 
sense  a  truth.  A  truth  of  the  higher  order  is  of 
necessity  incomplete,  and  our  statement  of  it  must 
change  with  increase  of  knowledge.  It  is  said  that 
"  Nature  abhors  a  generalization  "  as  once  she  used 
to  "  abhor  a  vacuum."  This  is  because  she  must 
always  add  to  it,  showing  that  it  is  forever  incom- 
plete. It  is  of  such  lofty  truth  that  Huxley  ob- 
serves :  "  New  truths  begin  as  heresies,  and  end  as 
superstitions."  Men  doubt  the  new  truth  at  first, 
because  it  is  strange  and  incomplete.  Later,  the  in- 
completeness becomes  their  most  cherished  quality. 

In  the  same  vein,  Ibsen  remarks :  "  Truths  are  by 
no  means  the  wiry  Methuselahs  some  people  think 
them.  A  normally  constituted  truth  lives,  let  us  say, 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years,  at  the  outside  twenty 
years,  seldom  longer,  and  truths  so  stricken  in  years 
are  always  shockingly  thin." 

Apart  from  these  meanings  of  truth  is  the  con- 


Reality  and  Illusion  97 

ception  of  the  ultimate  completed  actuality  of  the 
"  Ding  an  Sich,"  the  perfect  truth  of  which  we 
read  sometimes,  but  to  which  we  never  attain,  and 
to  which  no  meaning  can  be  attached. 

The  test  of  objective  truth  is  found  in  the  con- 
duct of  life.  By  the  verification  of  action  we  may 
separate  truth  from  illusion.  Every  characteriza- 
tion or  description  of  reality  points  the  way  to 
some  line  of  conduct.  Persistent  action,  based  on 
error,  is  dangerous,  because  it  leads  into  unforeseen 
conditions.  An  unforeseen  condition  in  itself  is  an 
evidence  of  inadequacy  of  knowledge.  Every  un- 
known condition  has  its  pitfalls  which  disappear  in 
the  daylight  of  knowledge.  "  Truth  in  science," 
says  James,  "  is  what  gives  us  the  maximum  possi- 
ble sum  of  satisfactions,  taste  included,  but  con- 
sistency both  with  previous  truth  and  with  novel 
fact  is  always  the  most  imperious  claimant.  Truths 
emerge  from  facts,  but  they  dip  forward  into  facts 
again  and  add  to  them,  which  facts  again  create  or 
reveal  new  truth.  The  facts  themselves  meanwhile 
are  not  true.  They  simply  are.  Truth  is  the  func- 
tion of  the  beliefs  that  start  and  terminate  among 
them."  If  the  supposed  truth  does  not  mean  some- 
thing in  particular,  action  by  bringing  about  results 
cannot  afford  any  test  of  it.  It  evades  the  issue  by 
remaining  vague.  To  have  a  definite  meaning,  thus 
admitting  of  verification  in  action,  our  supposed 
truth  should  stand  as  an  answer  to  some  definite 
question,  promoted  by  some  definite  interest  of  ours. 


98  Reality  and  Illusion 

This  interest  may  be  purely  theoretical,  or  it  may 
have  some  definite  purpose  or  utility.  And  the  ac- 
tion which  tests  it  should  have  some  definite  pur- 
pose. Activity,  such  as  Taine  imputes  to  the  people 
of  Paris,  that  of  "  ants  on  whom  pepper  has  been 
sprinkled,"  will  not  bear  "  the  name  of  action." 

With  conditions  familiar  and  simple,  the  mind 
draws  conclusions,  fairly  correct  as  far  as  they  go, 
from  the  details  given  in  ordinary  immediate  sense- 
perception.  We  ordinarily  show  common  sense 
when  dealing  with  the  squash,  and  we  take  no  risk 
in  following  the  promptings  which  our  common- 
place everyday  knowledge  of  the  squash  suggests 
to  us.  But  objects  more  complex  and  of  unfamiliar 
character  often  sorely  vex  our  common  sense.  To 
find  our  way  to  clear  comprehension  and  wise  ac- 
tion, we  must  ask  the  tested  and  co-ordinated  com- 
mon sense  of  the  race  which  we  call  science  to  come 
to  our  rescue.  Our  immediate  misinterpretations  of 
the  superficial  aspects  which  objects  present  to  us 
we  call  illusions.  False  conclusions  arising  from 
defects  of  reasoning  we  may  class  as  delusions.  The 
way  out  from  illusion  or  delusion  alike  is  found  in 
the  test  of  action.  When  the  truth  in  any  theory  is 
exhausted,  it  is  no  longer  available  in  action. 

In  ordinary  life,  we  are  everywhere  beset  by  il- 
lusions and  delusions  of  every  grade  and  order. 
In  this  chapter,  we  may  consider  some  types  and 
instances  of  these,  with,  perhaps,  a  glance  at  the 
lesson  each  one  may  teach,  and  a  final  look  at  the 


Reality  and  Illusion  99 

marks  by  which  errors  of  perception,  errors  of 
judgment,  and  resultant  misdirection  of  action  may 
be  detected  and  avoided. 

One  of  the  simplest  of  errors  is  that  arising  from 
relative  motion.  You  are  in  a  railway  train  which 
is  waiting  on  a  side  track.  Another  train  comes  in 
sight;  its  motion  seems  transferred  to  your  own 
train,  but  in  the  opposite  direction.  This  motion 
continues  until  the  other  train  has  passed.  It 
ceases  suddenly,  when  you  can  almost  feel  the  jolt 
of  its  stopping.  But  from  other  observations  which 
you  trust,  you  know  that  your  own  train  has  been 
all  the  time  at  rest. 

A  delusion  of  this  sort  is  so  simple  that  it  is 
quickly  corrected  before  it  passes  into  action.  But 
we  may  conceive  of  conditions  under  which  even 
this  would  have  its  dangers.  Let  us  look  at  some 
others.  The  story  is  told  of  a  merchant  who, 
smacking  his  lips  over  a  glass  of  brandy,  said  to  his 
clerk :  "  The  world  looks  very  different  to  t'he  man 
who  has  taken  a  good  drink  of  brandy  and  soda  in 
the  morning."  "  Yes,"  said  the  clerk,  "  and  he 
looks  different  to  the  world,  too."  Now,  which  is 
right?  Is  the  world  different  that  it  looks 
brighter?  The  test  is  found  in  action,  perhaps  in 
the  muddled  outcome  of  not  taking  the  world  as  it 
really  is. 

Ambrose  Bierce  tells  the  story  of  a  man  who  vis- 
ited a  naturalist  in  San  Francisco,  and  remained 
over  night  as  a  guest.  The  naturalist  was  a  student 


ioo  Reality  and  Illusion 

of  living  snakes.  When  the  visitor  retired  at  night 
he  looked  under  his  bed  and  saw  a  great  coiled 
serpent,  who  watched  him  with  glittering  eyes.  It 
is  believed  that  a  snake's  eye  has  a  wonderful  power 
of  fascination.  Such  it  proved  in  this  case.  For 
in  the  morning  the  naturalist  found  his  guest  dead, 
kneeling  on  the  floor,  his  open  eyes  staring  in  hor- 
ror at  the  thing  under  the  bed.  This  thing  was 
the  stuffed  skin  of  a  blacksnake  with  two  shoe- 
buttons  for  eyes.  It  was  suggestion,  not  the 
serpent,  which  had  charmed  him  to  his  death. 

A  ship  once  landed  on  a  little  palm-belted  island 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Its  passengers  brought  with 
them  the  materials  for  a  house,  which  they  set  up, 
to  the  surprise  of  the  natives,  who  had  never  seen 
a  wooden  house  before.  They  put  in  it  blankets 
and  cooking  utensils,  and,  after  a  day  or  two,  they 
set  up  near  the  house  on  a  solid  foundation  a  long 
tube  through  which  they  gazed  by  turns  at  the  sun. 
After  watching  the  sun  for  a  single  day,  they  hastily 
returned  to  the  ship,  carrying  the  long  tube  and  the 
blankets,  but  leaving  the  house  and,  apparently, 
everything  else  of  value  on  the  island.  The  de- 
lighted natives  took  possession  of  the  house,  and 
they  hold  it  to  this  day.  And  they  look  in  vain  for 
the  return  of  the  foolish  people  who  left  it  there. 

Some  time  after  this,  on  the  granite  coast  of 
Labrador,  the  same  thing  happened  again,  but  with 
this  variation,  that  the  tube  the  men  looked  through 
seemed  to  dim  the  sun.  When  everything  was  in 


Reality  and  Illusion  101 

place,  the  sun,  little  by  little,  grew  dark,  and  was 
hidden,  as  if  by  a  lid  drawn  over  it,  for  the  space  of 
an  hour.  Then  the  cover  was  slowly  drawn  away. 
The  sun  came  out  as  before.  Thereupon  the  men 
went  back  into  the  ship,  carrying  the  tube  with 
them,  but  leaving  their  house  and  almost  everything 
else  they  had  brought.  And  the  people  took  pos- 
session of  the  house.  But  nothing  in  particular 
happened  afterwards,  save  that  the  air  grew  hazy 
with  the  smoke  of  burning  forests. 

Along  the  coasts  of  Sinaloa  in  Mexico  people  are 
engaged  in  digging  for  buried  treasures  under  the 
direction  of  a  certain  woman  in  San  Francisco. 
She  has  never  been  in  Mexico  herself,  but  she  is 
reputed  to  have  the  power  of  seeing  clearly  remote 
or  hidden  objects  in  any  part  of  the  earth.  There  is 
an  old  legend  current  which  tells  that  a  pirate  ship, 
hard  pressed  by  the  Mexican  soldiers,  landed  on 
the  Cape  of  Camarron  near  Mazatlan,  where  the 
buccaneers  hastily  buried  a  vast  treasure  of  silver, 
after  which  they  all  fled.  A  certain  man  is  engaged 
to-day  in  boring  a  tunnel  into  solid  lava  to  find  the 
treasures  thus  laid  away.  This  woman,  in  a  shabby 
Sacramento  Street  boarding-house,  claims  to  see  the 
inner  secrets  of  the  mountains,  and  directs  all  these 
operations.  For  this,  we  may  assume,  she  is  duly, 
doubtless  adequately,  paid.  But  what  will  be  the 
reward  of  the  man  who  digs  the  tunnel? 

A  man  takes  a  forked  rod  of  witch-hazel,  and, 
going  over  a  tract  of  land,  feels  the  fork  twist 


IO2  Reality  and  Illusion 

downward  at  a  certain  point.  There  he  digs  and 
finds  a  well  of  living  water.  If  there  is  much  water 
the  rod  will  turn  the  more  vigorously  or  even  turn 
the  other  way.  Another  man  uses  the  same  rod 
and  finds  coal,  iron,  gas,  or  building  stone — what- 
ever he  may  seek.  To  do  this  he  has  only  to  at- 
tach to  the  branch  of  the  rod  a  small  fragment  of 
that  which  he  would  seek.  Thus  a  dime,  if  one 
seeks  for  silver,  a  five-dollar  gold  piece  if  one  looks 
for  gold.  In  California,  where  there  is  no  witch- 
hazel,  the  mountain  willow  serves  the  purpose  best, 
because  there  is  "  water  in  its  make-up."  But  even 
the  madrono  or  the  azalea  can  be  used  in  an 
emergency.  A  man  once  tried  to  bore  for  gas  on 
a  certain  tract  of  land  in  southern  Indiana.  He  en- 
gaged an  operator  with  a  witch-hazel  rod.  But  the 
wizard,  finding  the  territory  too  large  to  be  gone 
over  step  by  step,  makes  a  little  rod,  parlor  size, 
and,  taking  the  map  of  Vanderburg  County,  in 
which  the  city  of  Evansville  lies,  goes  over  it  with 
the  instrument.  The  result  is  just  as  satisfactory. 
The  rod  indicates  a  point  on  the  map,  the  well  is 
bored  in  accordance  with  the  rod's  directions. 
Plenty  of  gas  is  found,  and  this  is  held  to  prove 
the  accuracy  of  the  method.  As  Lord  Bacon  once 
observed,  "  men  mark  when  they  hit,  but  never 
when  they  miss." 

Now  that  radium  is  discovered  the  witch-hazel 
rod  becomes  the  chosen  medium  of  radio-activity. 
By  its  influence  buried  cities  are  now  discovered  as 


Reality  and  Illusion  103 

well  as  hidden  streams  of  water.  What  of  the  man 
who  tries  to  divine  the  material  of  which  a  star 
is  made?  Taking  a  tube  of  metal  with  lenses 
and  prisms  of  glass,  he  turns  it  toward  the  star. 
Speedily,  by  means  of  lines  and  streaks  on  the 
prism,  he  gets  his  answer,  and  the  composition  of 
a  vast  sun,  so  far  away  that  the  light  which  left  it  in 
the  days  of  Caesar  has  never  yet  reached  us,  he  de- 
scribes with  confidence.  Then,  turning  his  tube 
on  the  Pole  Star,  he  finds  that  it  is  made  of  two 
stars,  one  a  great  sun  which  we  can  see,  and  the 
other  a  smaller  sun  which  we  have  never  seen,  and 
which  we  can  never  see.  What  of  all  this?  If  the 
spectroscope  tells  the  truth  where  it  speaks  in  such 
bold  fashion,  may  we  not  trust  the  witch-hazel, 
too,  with  its  more  modest  claims? 

An  astronomer  traces  the  course  of  a  far-off 
planet  and  finds  that  its  orbit  bends  a  little  from  a 
perfect  ellipse.  From  this  he  concludes  that  an- 
other planet  must  be  coming  near  it  and  attracting 
it.  He  sets  to  work  to  determine  the  size  of  this 
other  planet,  and  the  place  in  which  it  ought  to  be. 
Having  finished  his  calculation,  he  turns  the  tele- 
scope toward  this  place,  and  the  expected  planet  is 
there.  If  the  mathematician,  through  his  instru- 
ments, be  thus  sensitive  to  far-off  matter  in  infinite 
space,  may  not  the  clairvoyant,  through  her  sensitile- 
projectile  astral  body,  be  equally  sensitive  to  a  mass 
of  silver? 

Once  in  a  trance  a  finely  organized  adept  or 


IO4  Reality  and  Illusion 

"  medium  "  wandered  in  her  astral  body  through 
the  open  belt  where  the  souls  of  the  planets  wan- 
der at  will.  While  there,  she  heard  the  comet- 
shriek,  the  cry  of  a  lost  planet  soul,  "  the  most  ter- 
rible sound  that  rings  through  the  heavenly  spaces 
of  the  zenith."  Is  not  her  testimony  to  be  received 
with  that  of  the  others  who  have  traversed  the  mys- 
teries of  the  abysses  of  space? 

From  shore  to  shore  across  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
runs  a  metallic  cable.  By  means  of  electric  bat- 
teries, magnets,  and  sparks,  a  message  is  conveyed 
from  one  end  of  this  cable  to  the  other.  Messages 
have  been  sent  so  many  times  that  the  most  skeptical 
cannot  doubt  the  fact.  By  such  means  a  wanderer 
in  any  part  of  the  world  may  be  found  and  called 
home,  or,  if  need  be,  sent  still  further  on.  Most  of 
us  have  seen  this  done  and  all  have  heard  of  it. 
Because  it  has  grown  familiar  it  seems  real  to  us, 
and  its  mystery  is  dissipated.  But  why  use  the 
metallic  cable  at  all?  What  occult  power  lurks  in 
metal  ?  Why  must  we  work  always  on  the  material 
plane?  Why  not  use  the  air?  And,  indeed,  the 
air  has  been  used,  and  with  wonderful  success.  The 
air  is  full  of  marconigrams,  and  the  "  grams  "  or 
messages  from  Poulson's  latest  invention,  the 
creatures  of  wireless  telegraphy  and  wireless  teleph- 
ony. But  why  should  we  stop  here?  Why  not 
use  the  invisible  ether,  along  which  so  many  forms 
of  energy  are  propagated?  Indeed,  why  not  use 
the  boundless  sympathy  of  life?  In  southern  Eu- 


Reality  and  Illusion  105 

rope  there  is  a  large  species  of  snail  which  runs  up 
and  down  the  cabbages,  feeding  on  their  leaves. 
Like  other  snails,  it  is  very  fond  of  its  mate.  At 
least,  it  is  so  claimed  by  its  promoters.  It,  too, 
has  been  used  in  telegraphy.  Leave  your  sweet- 
heart in  Italy  when  you  come  back  home,  but  leave 
her  with  a  large  piece  of  cardboard  and  take  another 
like  it  for  yourself.  On  each  of  these  write  a  num- 
ber of  sentences  of  sentiment  and  affection — quota- 
tions from  the  poets,  the  finest  possible  to  your 
literary  taste,  Browning,  Tennyson,  Wordsworth, 
or  the  latest  topical  song — any  of  these  will  do. 
Then  take  for  yourself  one  of  a  devoted  pair  of 
snails,  leaving  the  other  with  her.  At  an  agreed 
moment  (standard  time,  making  allowance  for  dif- 
ferences of  longitude)  place  your  snail  upon  the 
card  and  she  will  do  the  same  with  hers.  Your 
snail  will  creep  to  any  sentiment  you  choose  as  you 
direct  it.  Hers,  left  free  to  move  about  at  will, 
follows  the  same  course  its  mate  has  chosen.  Thus 
the  fondest  messages  can  be  sent  across  the  ocean. 
The  last  word  of  the  snail  in  America,  "  All's  well," 
or  "  Non  ti  scordar  di  me,"  can  be  made  to  echo 
sweetly  on  a  far-off  shore.  Here  we  have  the  Para- 
silenic  Telegraph,  no  invention  of  the  present 
writer,  but  the  actual  work  of  an  ingenious  "  psychic 
adept." 

But  why  use  the  snails?  Surely  their  cold  slimy 
bodies  are  not  more  forceful  than  the  throbbing 
heart  and  eager  brain  of  man.  Surely  they  are 


io6  Reality  and  Illusion 

not  more  sensitive  than  his  astral  form.  Let  the 
snails  go.  They  belong  to  the  crude  beginning  of 
astral  science.  You  have  only  to  sit  in  your  room 
alone  in  darkness,  and  by  intense  thought  and  ir- 
resistible volition  you  may  set  the  whole  ether  of 
the  world  in  palpitation  with  your  dreams  and  de- 
sires. 

To  your  thought  the  "  sensitive  "  you  love  will 
respond.  Her  astral  brain  will  register  your  ether 
throbs.  "  It  is  my  wish  " :  that  is  enough  for  her. 
But  you  can  do  more  than  that,  if  we  may  trust  the 
records,  already  published.  Your  own  astral  body 
may  be  sent  across  the  ocean  on  the  tremulous  ether 
and  it  will  appear  to  her  in  her  dreams  or  as  part 
of  her  realities.  While  the  absence  of  this  body 
may  be  a  slight  inconvenience  to  you,  for  you  must 
sleep  or  suffer  while  it  is  gone,  it  will  be  a  source 
of  joy  to  her.  It  may  plead  your  cause  for  you  in 
a  way  which  protoplasmic  bodies  can  never  imitate. 
That  this  is  not  imagination  or  illusion  we  have 
abundant  testimony,  if  the  word  of  man  unverified 
by  instruments  of  precision  is  convincing  to  you. 
Thoughts  and  ideas,  we  are  told,  may  be  "  impressed 
on  consciousness  in  solid  chunks  without  waiting 
for  words  or  clicks  or  other  means  of  expression,  or 
for  a  lightning  train  to  convey  them,"  and  there 
are  hundreds  of  records  to  show  how  this  is  done. 
Stranger  things  than  this  are  happening  every  day, 
and  we  think  nothing  of  it.  Messages  fly  through 
the  air,  to  be  recorded  on  sensitive  instruments  of 


Reality  and  Illusion  107 

precision.  Even  the  very  words  themselves  can 
be  caught  and  brought  to  life,  the  very  sounds  be- 
ing reproduced. 

But  you  do  not  stop  with  the  expression  of  your 
power  over  the  ether  and  the  astral  messages  it  is 
the  function  of  the  ether  to  carry.  You  may  exert 
control  over  matter  itself.  Mind  is  matter's  king. 
Matter  is  the  vassal  of  mind.  Then  under  the  force 
of  mind,  matter  will  change  or  vanish.  Recent  ex- 
perimenters claim  that  by  gazing  at  a  photographic 
plate  in  the  dark,  an  impression  can  be  made  on  it. 
This  is  the  mind  flashing  out  through  the  human 
eye.  Then  whatever  is  in  this  "  mind's  eye  "  should 
appear  on  the  sensitive  plate  of  the  camera.  But 
greater  deeds  than  these  were  done  long  ago,  and 
to  my  mind  they  are  told  in  records  better  authen- 
ticated. The  sages  relate  that  Odin  wished  to  se- 
cure the  golden  mead  of  the  giants  that  men  might 
drink  it  and  be  strong  as  they.  After  great  labors 
he  came  to  where  the  mead  was  kept.  He  found 
that  the  giant  Suttung  had  concealed  it  in  a  great 
stone  house,  to  which  he  could  get  no  key.  So 
Odin  and  his  friend  the  giant  Bauge  sat  down  be- 
fore the  house  and  gazed  at  its  walls  all  day.  Thus 
they  made  a  small  hole  in  the  rock  through  which 
Odin  entered  by  changing  himself  into  an  angle- 
worm, and  carried  the  golden  mead  away  in  tri- 
umph. 

There  was  once  a  California  nurseryman  who  had 
a  good  business  and  was  making  money,  as  the 


io8  Reality  and  Illusion 

phrase  is.  So  he  put  aside  all  the  fruit  trees  which 
would  sell  and  devoted  himself  to  making  others 
which  would  not.  Each  year  he  trimmed  his  plums 
and  apricots  and  lilies  and  poppies,  taking  away 
the  pollen  which  nature  had  provided,  and  putting 
it  on  flowers  to  which  it  did  not  belong.  Each  year 
he  planted  thousands  of  seeds  of  many  kinds,  and 
when  the  plants  came  up,  he  pulled  up  nearly  all 
of  them  and  burned  them  in  a  great  bonfire.  Mean- 
while he  made  no  money,  and  lost  little  by  little  all 
that  he  began  with.  Then  men  began  to  see  that  all 
fruits  and  nuts  and  flowers  changed  under  his 
hands.  The  plums  grew  very  large  and  very  juicy, 
red,  blue,  and  white,  and  more  on  the  tree  than 
men  had  ever  seen  before.  The  lilies  and  the  pop- 
pies and  all  the  other  flowers  grew  larger,  the  cac- 
tus lost  its  thorns  and  the  onion  its  odor,  the  chest- 
nut bore  its  fruit  with  its  second  crop  of  leaves, 
and  all  things  which  he  touched  turned  into  some- 
thing handsomer  or  with  finer  fruit.  And  every 
year  he  pulled  up  almost  everything  in  his  garden 
and  cut  down  almost  everything  in  his  orchard,  and 
laid  all  in  windrows  of  which  he  made  great  bon- 
fires. And  foolish  people,  seeing  his  work,  tasting 
his  fruit,  called  him  a  wizard,  and  came  from  far 
and  near  to  see  him  wave  his  magic  wands. 
But  there  were  some  who  saw  in  his  operations 
merely  science  in  action,  the  working  out  by  man 
on  a  small  scale  of  the  operations  which  on  a 
large  scale  the  scientific  men  know  as  selection 


Reality  and  Illusion  109 

and  segregation  of  the  products  of  variation  and 
heredity. 

On  an  island  in  Alaska,  known  as  Etolin,  a  good 
man  established  himself  some  fifteen  years  ago,  to 
risk  his  fortune  on  a  law  of  salmon  life  which  he 
regarded  as  a  conclusion  of  science.  The  facts  are 
as  follows :  The  red  salmon  of  the  Pacific  are 
hatched  in  the  streams  above  the  lakes.  Spending 
their  first  summer  in  the  lakes,  they  run  down  to  the 
sea,  remaining  there  until  they  are  mature — at  four 
years  old.  Then  they  ascend  the  streams  again,  and 
cast  their  spawn  in  the  brooks  above  the  original 
lake.  After  once  spawning  all  of  them  die.  These 
statements  are  all  accepted  matters  of  fact,  the  object 
of  a  thousand  observations.  But  to  these  laws  of 
salmon  life,  this  man  added  one  more:  Each  salmon 
returns  to  the  actual  stream  where  it  was  actually 
hatched.  Fishermen  believe  this,  and  the  return  of 
thousands  year  by  year  to  the  same  place  seems  to 
substantiate  it. 

So  this  man  on  Etolin  Island  reasoned  to  himself 
in  this  way.  The  rivers  of  Etolin  have  no  red 
salmon.  They  are  barren  streams.  This  is  because 
no  red  salmon  have  been  born  there.  I  will  gather 
salmon  spawn  to  stock  these  rivers,  and  I  shall 
be  made  wealthy  by  the  return  of  the  salmon.  I 
cast  my  bread  upon  these  waters,  and  after  four 
years  it  will  return.  Four  years  he  waited,  each 
year  stocking  the  Etolin  streams  anew.  In  four 
years  no  salmon  came.  He  was  sure  of  the  story 


no  Reality  and  Illusion 

of  their  homing,  so  he  changed  his  theory  as  to 
their  time  of  maturity.  It  must  be  five  years,  six 
years,  seven  years,  ten  years,  instead  of  four.  And 
the  fish  hatchery  on  Etolin  remains,  and  the  Etolin 
streams  are  barren  still.  There  are  no  lakes  on  the 
Etolin  streams,  and  we  know  that  the  red  salmon 
never  runs  where  it  will  find  no  lake.  The  home- 
coming of  the  salmon  seemed  to  the  good  man  on 
the  island  as  sure  a  conclusion  of  science  as  their 
four-year  period  of  maturation.  Who  shall  now 
decide,  since  these  conclusions  have  thus  met  at 
cross-purposes,  which  of  them  was  the  mistake? 
Who  shall  say  that  the  time  is  ripe  for  a  decision? 
There  was  once  an  old  white-haired  man  who 
came  to  an  assemblage  of  scholars  in  the  city  of 
Bloomington,  in  Indiana,  bringing  with  him  two 
bars  of  wood  connected  by  bands  of  iron.  Fifty- 
three  years  before  he  had  left  his  home  on  the  bay 
of  Quinte,  in  Ontario,  to  show  these  bars  to  the 
world  and  to  give  to  mankind  what  it  never  had  be- 
fore, control  over  "  The  Unconditioned  Force  of 
the  Universe."  This  force  through  this  little  ma- 
chine would  "  revolutionize  human  industry,  econ- 
omize human  labor,  and  relieve  human  want." 
"  Gentlemen,"  said  the  old  man,  "  I  gave  up  the 
free  and  easy  life  of  the  Canadian  forests,  I  sought 
my  home  among  the  dwellers  of  cities,  I  have  sacri- 
ficed fifty-three  years  of  my  life  upon  the  altar  of 
my  desire  to  benefit  mankind.  In  three  weeks  more 
my  invention  will  be  perfected,  and  through  these 


Reality  and  Illusion  in 

bars  the  unconditioned  force  of  the  universe  will 
do  its  works  for  you  and  for  me.  The  time  has 
gone  by,"  he  said,  "  when  the  recognition  of  my 
principle  would  have  pleased  my  ambition.  I  love 
my  race,  and  I  wish  to  do  them  good."  Two  years 
more  went  by,  the  unconditioned  force  lacked  but 
a  few  days — just  one  more  week — of  accomplish- 
ment, and  in  that  week  the  old  man  died  in  the 
poorhouse  of  Monroe  County,  Indiana,  and  in  the 
dust  and  cobwebs  in  an  attic  of  a  neighboring  col- 
lege the  model  of  the  machine  to  be  controlled  by 
the  unconditioned  force  of  the  universe  still  awaits 
the  touch  which  for  the  first  time  shall  make  it 
run.  There  were  some  who  called  the  old  man  a 
"  wizard,"  and  some  a  "  philosopher,"  and  because 
fame  has  forgotten  his  name,  I  speak  it  here — Rob- 
ert Havens.  And  in  both  these  cases,  and  in  all 
cases,  what  is  our  test  of  truth? 

Not  long  ago,  on  the  plains  of  Texas,  by  order 
of  the  government  of  the  United  States,  tons  of 
gunpowder  were  exploded.  A  great  noise  was 
made,  the  smoke  arose  to  the  skies,  and  then  all 
was  as  before.  The  purpose  of  this  was  to  pro- 
duce rain  under  conditions  in  which  common  sense 
said  rain  was  impossible.  While  these  conditions 
remained  there  was  no  rain,  but  the  wisdom  of  the 
experiment  has  the  official  stamp  of  the  United 
States.  Who  shall  say  that  it  was  not  wise — 
that  the  experiment  should  not  be  tried  again,  and 
yet  again? 


H2  Reality  and  Illusion 

A  few  years  ago,  as  I  remember,  some  enterpris- 
ing men  had  bought  the  dry  bed  of  a  river  in 
southern  California.  It  is  filled  with  winter  floods 
in  the  rainy  season,  while  in  summer  it  is  white  with 
granite  sand  and  barren  stones.  At  best  its  bowl- 
ders can  only  produce  a  scant  growth  of  chaparral 
and  cactus.  Yet  when  it  was  announced  that  a 
city  was  to  be  built  on  this  land,  men  grew  wild  at 
the  thought.  All  night  they  stood  in  the  streets 
of  Los  Angeles,  each  to  take  his  turn  in  buying  its 
town  lots.  The  sense  of  great  wealth  was  in  the 
air,  and  even  the  wisest  were  carried  away  by  it. 
The  "  millionaire  of  a  day  "  exerts  a  fascination 
on  his  brother  millionaires,  akin,  perhaps,  to  the 
charming  of  a  snake.  An  "  obsession  "  comes  from 
within,  not  from  without. 

In  Orange  County,  in  California,  there  is  a  re- 
ligious sect  which  finds  the  old  Bible  of  our  race, 
the  Bible  of  Moses  and  Job  and  Jesus  and  Paul, 
an  outworn  book,  no  longer  fitted  for  the  aspira- 
tions of  man.  This  Bible  is  still  tinctured  with  the 
gospel  of  selfishness,  for  it  recognizes  private  own- 
ership of  land,  and  goods,  and  men.  "  To  honor 
thy  father  and  mother  "  implies  special  ownership 
of  them,  and  the  higher  life  demands  that  there 
should  be  no  respect  of  persons.  There  can  be  no< 
personal  claims  of  any  sort  if  all  are  to  be  as 
"  angels  in  heaven."  Its  command  "  thou  shalt  not 
covet  thy  neighbor's  goods  "  implies  the  neighbor's 
ownership  of  material  things,  a  relation  which  must 


Reality  and  Illusion  113 

degrade  all  who  submit  to  it.  "  To  render  unto 
Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar's  "  is  an  outworn 
recognition  of  powers  that  be  but  which  ought  not 
to  be.  Clearly  a  new  bible  is  needed,  and  one  of 
the  members  of  the  sect  sat  down  by  a  typewriter 
(presumably  not  his  own  property)  and  wrote  a 
bible.  It  was  not  his  own  composition,  but  that  of 
the  Almighty,  for  the  writer  simply  lent  the  hands 
with  which  divine  power  did  the  work.  As  his 
fingers  played  over  the  Remington  keys,  he  thought 
of  anything  or  everything  except  his  writing.  The 
result  was  the  book  of  Oahspe,  the  Bible  of  this  new 
dispensation,  the  story  of  the  lords  of  Atmospheria 
and  their  struggles  with  the  greater  kings  and  fates, 
to  which  all  men  and  lords  are  finally  subject.  And 
in  the  long  run  the  Fates  get  the  better  even  of  the 
kings.  And  the  name  of  the  book  arose  natu- 
rally. One  looks  up  to  Heaven,  and  he  says  "  Oh," 
then  he  looks  down  to  earth  and  says,  "  Ah,"  and 
between  Heaven  and  earth  is  Spirit, — Oahspe! 

In  the  City  Park  of  San  Francisco  is  the  wooden 
image  of  some  monstrous  creature  carved  by  the 
Indians  of  Queen  Charlotte  Sound  to  express  some 
phase  of  their  mystic  devotions.  This  image  was 
stolen  by  a  Norwegian  sailor.  Its  makers  resented 
its  loss  by  a  series  of  incantations  so  horrible  that 
they  took  effect  in  the  image  itself.  The  idol  came 
to  San  Francisco,  bringing  sickness,  shipwreck,  or 
failure  to  all  who  touched  it.  Even  now,  while  it 
rests  on  a  shelf  in  the  Park  Museum  in  apparent 


U4  Reality  and  Illusion 

quiet,  its  evil  power  is  shown  at  night  in  the 
smashing  of  vases  and  the  overturning  of  bottles. 
Something  of  this  kind  takes  place  whenever  the 
image  is  left  unguarded.  A  man  who  had  charge 
of  it  for  some  time  avers  that  one  night  the  creature 
rose  up  in  living  form  and  seized  him  in  its 
clutches,  and  only  by  the  most  violent  efforts  could 
he  make  his  escape. 

The  daily  papers  announce  that  Madame  de  Silva, 
a  prophetess  and  seer  of  visions,  seventh  daughter 
of  a  seventh  daughter,  born  with  a  caul,  is  pre- 
pared to  diagnose  all  diseases  from  the  examination 
of  a  lock  of  hair;  Wong  Chang,  the  Chinese  doc- 
tor, is  prepared  to  do  the  same  without  the  hair 
and  asking  no  questions.  How  does  this  differ 
from  the  power  of  Cuvier  to  draw  a  bird  from  a 
single  claw,  or  that  of  Agassiz,  who  could  restore 
a  whole  fish  from  one  scale? 

There  is  said  to  be  a  great  law  of  human  society, 
called  the  "  Law  of  Equal  Access."  Because  man 
must  live  by  the  products  of  the  soil,  and  because 
the  earth  is  the  sole  source  of  wealth,  all  men 
should,  in  justice,  have  an  equal  access  to  this 
source  of  wealth.  To  this  end,  all  private  owner- 
ship of  the  soil  should  be  abolished,  must  be  abol- 
ished, and,  with  it,  poverty  and  all  its  train  of  evils 
will  be  abolished  also.  The  best  way  to  do  this  is 
apparently  to  throw  all  burdens  of  taxation  on  the 
rent  of  landed  property,  for  thus  all  privately  ac- 
cruing land  values  may  be  pressed  out  of  existence. 


Reality  and  Illusion  115 

Then  any  man  could  help  himself  to  the  earth 
in  such  measure  as  might  please  him,  knowing  that 
whether  with  much  or  little,  he  would,  so  long  as 
he  should  pay  his  tax,  be  working  his  fellows  no 
inequity  by  his  private  occupation.  But  there 
are  immense  differences  among  soils,  as  to  pro- 
ductivity and  availability,  which  make  their  rentals 
differ.  In  putting  the  theory  to  the  test  of  action 
it  also  appears  that  there  are  like  differences,  and 
as  great,  among  men.  With  some  the  earth  smiles 
and  puts  forth  a  thousand  fold.  With  others,  not 
even  a  stalk  of  corn  or  a  thicket  of  weeds  can  be 
made  to  grow.  The  trees  which  depend  solely  (as 
man  does  not)  on  immediate  access  to  the  soil,  never 
yet  have  developed  a  law  of  equal  access  to  it.  The 
more  favoring  are  the  conditions  for  the  law  of 
equal  access,  the  further  seems  the  law  from  actual 
achievement.  There  are  some  who,  thinking  of  these 
things,  declare  that  there  is  in  fact  no  such  law 
of  equal  access,  and  that  the  earth  belongs  to  him 
who  can  hold  it  and  can  coax  it  to  its  highest  pro- 
ductiveness. And  there  are  still  others  who  say  that 
any  law  is  only  an  expression  of  what  is,  because  if 
it  could  have  been  anything  else  it  would  have  been 
so.  And  in  the  view  of  men  of  this  sort  all  social 
institutions  must  change  and  pass  away,  for  the  so- 
cial structure  is  but  a  complex  of  the  individual  men 
that  make  it  up.  By  what  test,  then,  shall  we  judge 
this  law  of  equal  access  as  a  cure  for  poverty? 
It  is  claimed  by  many  good  men  that  "  all  men 


n6  Reality  and  Illusion 

are  born  free  and  equal."  But  this  equality  does 
not  appear  in  society  as  we  know  it,  except  pos- 
sibly in  the  cradle,  and  certainly  in  the  grave.  For 
this  reason  other  good  men  struggle  for  equality 
more  real  and  far-reaching,  which  shall  exist  in  that 
period  of  life  when  it  shall  be  most  appreciated.  To 
this  end,  men  have  grouped  themselves  into  soci- 
eties where  there  shall  be  equal  voice,  equal  enjoy- 
ment, equal  access  to  capital,  equal  exercise  of  power, 
where  each  man  shall  serve  according  to  his  power, 
and  each  man  should  receive  according  to  his  needs. 
But  that  in  the  struggle  of  life  thus  far  these  soci- 
eties, one  and  all,  have  gone  down — this  we  must 
concede.  Equal  voice  is  found  only  among  the 
dumb,  equal  enjoyment  only  among  the  joyless, 
equal  power  only  among  the  powerless,  equal  ac- 
cess to  capital  only  among  the  hopelessly  im- 
pecunious. In  human  experience,  to  render  to  each 
man  according  to  his  needs  demands  a  very  rigid 
objective  decision  as  to  what  these  needs  legitimately 
may  be.  To  give  all  men  an  equal  voice  in  this 
matter  is  to  fill  the  air  with  unclassified  vocifera- 
tions. No  man  ever  had  his  needs  supplied  with- 
out needing  a  little  more.  Even  the  hermit  in  the 
desert  caring  only  for  piety  will  yearn  for  more. 
On  the  other  hand,  such  is  human  nature,  some 
men  will  rather  talk  than  work,  and  in  all  com- 
munities in  which  individual  effort  is  merged  in 
social  responsibility,  a  few  do  all  the  work.  The 
rest,  according  to  their  license,  fall  short  of  doing 


Reality  and  Illusion  117 

according  to  their  power.  When  drones  and  work- 
ers have  equal  access  to  the  honey  cells,  the  drones 
at  last  make  way  with  most  of  the  honey.  Among 
men — not  bees — under  such  conditions  one  by  one 
the  workers  leave  their  work  to  swell  the  ranks 
of  the  drones. 

It  is  certain  that  the  abolition  of  poverty  means 
the  happiness  of  the  people.  If  all  men  should  do 
two  hours  of  productive  work  each  day,  poverty 
would  be  abolished.  What,  then,  more  natural 
than  for  a  few  hundred  kindred  spirits  to  stand  to- 
gether to  work  for  this  beneficent  end?  If  in  one 
community  poverty  could  be  abolished,  why  not  in 
all  others?  If  we  say  that  human  nature  is  the  gate 
that  shuts  us  out  of  heaven,  is  it  not  evident  that 
human  nature  is  itself  the  product  of  conditions? 
Is  it  not  our  poverty  that  makes  our  dispositions 
poor?  When  it  is  said  that  "poor  folks  have  poor 
ways  "  must  we  not  answer  that  these  ways  will  be 
changed  when  poor  folk  cease  to  be  poor? 

Admitting  the  failure  of  any  particular  venture 
in  co-operative  life,  with  all  for  all,  and  nothing  for 
the  individual  which  all  do  not  share,  we  may  ask 
what  does  this  prove  ?  How  many  New  Harmonys 
and  Icarias  and  Altrurias,  how  many  Kaweahs 
and  Bellamys  and  Brook  Farms  are  necessary  to 
disprove  the  theory  of  human  perfectibility 
through  withdrawal  from  competition?  How 
many  years  shall  we  wait  at  Etolin  for  the  return 
of  our  salmon?  How  do  we  know  that  some  un- 


n8  Reality  and  Illusion 

known,  unmeasured  force  may  not  be  still  in  re- 
serve to  make  a  full  success  of  our  final  venture? 
But  human  life  will  not  let  us  wait  too  long.  We 
must  act,  somehow,  and  do  the  best  we  can.  The 
answer  of  the  centuries  comes  too  late  for  us. 
We  must  "  believe  and  venture "  and  risk  the 
chances. 

At  Denver  not  long  ago  a  man,  with  the  beard 
of  a  saint,  insisted  that  he  had  the  gift  of  healing. 
A  wild  hermit  from  the  plains,  some  called  him 
crazy  and  some  called  him  a  prophet.  But  the  gift 
he  had,  or  seemed  to  have,  and  thousands  of  sick 
people  and  well  crowded  around  him  to  be  touched 
and  healed.  He  could  not  touch  them  all,  so  he 
blessed  their  handkerchiefs,  and  his  power  passed 
over  to  them.  Men  and  women  whose  ills  gallons 
of  patent  medicines  had  failed  to  assuage  were 
healed  at  once  by  these  pieces  of  soiled  cloth.  And 
testimonials  such  as  they  had  once  written  for  these 
same  medicines,  they  now  freely  wrote  for  him. 
And  wherever  he  went,  disease  vanished  before 
him. 

But,  after  all,  is  there  such  a  thing  as  disease? 
Surely  man  "  made  in  the  image  of  God  "  is  made 
in  the  image  of  perfection,  and  what  is  perfect 
cannot  be  marred  or  destroyed.  May  not  disease 
be  the  greatest  of  illusions?  May  not  all  pain  be 
a  nightmare  dream  from  which  we  should  escape 
if  we  were  once  awakened? 

Many  a  school  of  healing  has  been  based  in  one 


Reality  and  Illusion  119 

way  or  another  on  these  propositions.  In  a  hun- 
dred different  ways  at  a  hundred  different  times 
men  and  women  have  found  that  they  could  heal 
pain  by  the  suggestion  that  pain  does  not  exist.  If 
pain  is  disease,  then  shall  we  not  heal  all  diseases 
in  this  way?  But  some  say  that  pain  is  not  a  dis- 
ease, only  a  warning  that  disease  is  present  or 
coming.  Pain  is  the  signal  that  something  is  go- 
ing wrong  in  the  mechanism  of  the  human  body. 
The  signal  may  be  unnoticed,  it  is  claimed.  We 
then  feel  no  pain,  but  the  injury  remains,  for  it  is 
the  cause  of  the  pain  and  not  the  pain  itself.  By 
persistently  turning  the  mind  away  from  these  sig- 
nals of  distress  sent  up  by  the  bodily  organs,  we 
may  come  at  last  to  be  incapable  of  receiving  them. 
We  are  then  free  from  pain,  and  our  minds  may 
be  filled  with  a  sweet  serenity  satisfactory  to  our- 
selves, and  edifying  to  others.  Now,  in  all  this 
what  is  true?  Are  we  ill  when  we  feel  pain,  well 
when  we  do  not?  Or  do  we  feel  pain  because  we 
are  ill,  and  does  the  illness  pass  when  our  feeling 
is  gone?  May  it  not  be  true  that  this  is  a  danger- 
ous and  selfish  serenity?  If  it  does  not  mean  the 
checking  of  disease,  but  only  the  closing  of  our  eyes 
to  its  ravages,  then  have  we  really  gained  anything  ? 
To  turn  from  pain  is  to  turn  from  all  outside  im- 
pressions. It  may  be  claimed  that  to  close  the 
mind  to  the  information  given  by  the  senses  is  to 
destroy  reality,  to  make  activity  impossible,  to  cease 
to  do  our  duty  in  the  world.  This  is  to  cease  to 


I2O  Reality  and  Illusion 

grow  and  to  become  a  burden  to  our  friends  and  a 
cumberer  of  society.  There  is  nothing  more  noble 
than  serenity  amid  trouble  and  distracting  effort. 
There  is  nothing  more  selfish  than  the  serenity 
which  is  bred  by  immunity  from  pain.  But  to  many 
people,  existence  without  pain,  without  sensation, 
and  without  action,  represents  an  ideal  of  the  soul. 
It  is  not  alone  faith  in  a  theory  of  disease  or  a 
theory  of  non-existence  which  may  produce  this  re- 
sult. Faith  in  a  celery-compound,  an  electric  belt, 
or  a  mud  idol  may  produce  the  same  sweet  serenity, 
the  same  maddening  indifference  to  all  that  is  real 
or  moving  in  life.  The  walls  of  certain  churches  in 
Mexico  are  covered  with  the  offerings  and  pictures 
of  those  who  were  saved  by  their  vows  or  by  ap- 
peals to  some  saint.  "  But  where,"  said  Lord  Ba- 
con, long  ago,  "  are  the  pictures  of  those  who  were 
lost  in  spite  of  their  vows?" 

It  is  true  that  to  cultivate  a  cheerful  temper,  to 
look  on  the  bright  side  of  things,  to  laugh  when  we 
can,  and  be  hopeful  under  all  conditions,  is  good 
for  the  body.  The  food  is  better  assimilated,  the 
blood  runs  faster,  one  can  do  more  and  better 
things,  and  come  in  closer  relations  with  the  realities 
of  life.  But  conversely,  when  one  meets  most  man- 
fully the  needs  of  life,  his  pulse  beats  more  quickly, 
his  brain  works  better,  his  liver  gives  him  less 
trouble,  and  he  is  naturally  cheerful  and  hopeful. 
The  cheerful  man  does  not  dodge  pain,  he  over- 
comes it.  He  does  not  selfishly  shrink. from  reality 


Reality  and  Illusion  121 

and  turn  to  introspection  and  dreaming.  He  faces 
the  world  and  makes  it  his  own  and  takes  man- 
fully the  pain  his  efforts  cause  or  which  in  the 
progress  of  life  he  cannot  avoid. 

It  is  possible  to  go  much  farther  in  the  direction 
of  the  banishment  of  pain  through  the  thought  that 
pain  does  not  exist.  Then  take  more  pain  and  it 
will  become  at  last  an  intense  pleasure;  when  the 
mind  is  in  the  grasp  of  absolute  torture,  it  is  pos- 
sible for  the  brain  to  feel  it  as  with  spasms  of  ab- 
solute delight.  It  is  not  easy  to  do  this,  but  can 
be  produced  by  excessive  belief  in  the  unreality  of 
common  things.  The  brain  half-maddened  by  pain 
is  open  to  suggestions  from  other  maddened  brains 
till  a  fierce  wild  ecstasy  is  the  final  result.  This 
fact  explains  the  strange  rites  of  those  sects  of  self- 
destroyers  which  rose  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Flag- 
ellantes,  the  Hermanos  Penitentes,  and  the  rest. 
Even  yet,  the  last  of  the  Penitent  Brothers  at  San 
Mateo  in  New  Mexico  in  the  Passion  Week  torture 
themselves  in  the  most  revolting  fashion  by  cruci- 
fixion, whipping,  and  the  binding  of  huge  cactuses 
on  their  backs.  By  hideous  tortures  they  expiate  in 
one  week  their  many  heinous  sins  of  the  whole  year. 
Just  as  the  suggestion  that  disease  is  an  illusion  may 
conceal  pain,  for  those  who  give  up  everything  else 
for  healing,  so  does  the  suggestion  of  infinite  pleas- 
ure conceal  for  a  time  the  most  exquisite  pain.  But 
as  in  the  one  case,  the  disease  goes  on  unchecked, 
so  in  the  others,  the  wounds  of  the  whip  and 


122  Reality  and  Illusion 

the  cactus  stab  remain  as  realities  when  the  illu- 
sion of  joy  has  passed  away. 

Once  men  fell  at  the  feet  of  saints  or  sprinkled 
themselves  with  holy  water  or  vowed  their  for- 
tunes to  charity,  to  escape  the  ravages  of  yellow 
fever.  Later  they  took  quinine,  scrubbed  the  floors, 
whitewashed  the  walls,  and  let  sunshine  into  dark 
places.  Now  they  hunt  mosquitoes,  suffocating 
them  in  their  swamps  by  gallons  of  coal  oil.  Which 
of  all  these  is  the  one  right  way? 

"  The  cell  is  an  illusion,"  observes  Mr.  William 
Q.  Judge.  "  It  is  merely  a  word.  Thus  it  is  with 
the  body,  so  it  is  with  the  earth,  and  with  the 
solar  system." 

"  Matter  rests  on  mind.  On  mind  it  is  depend- 
ent for  the  recognition  which  is  its  existence.  Its 
laws  are  mental  channels  only,  the  grooves  into 
which  the  thought  sustaining  it  naturally  falls. 
With  your  own  mind  you  can  cut  such  grooves, 
you  can  make  such  laws.  Therefore  do  it!  Would 
you  change  the  law  of  gravitation?  Then  change 
it.  You  have  but  to  assert  yourself.  If  you  have 
the  courage  to  try,  it  is  nothing  to  remove  moun- 
tains." 

"  When  one  is  troubled  by  a  horrible  dream," 
says  another  noted  sciosophist,  "  he  has  only  to 
say:  this  is  a  dream.  I  will  awaken.  Then  the 
stars  shine  through  the  window,  and  the  vision 
disappears.  Thus,  as  one  moves  nightmares,  so 
may  we  remove  mountains." 


Reality  and  Illusion  123 

"  For  there  is  no  Pain  in  Truth,"  continues 
the  author  last  quoted.  "  Therefore  there  is 
no  Truth  in  Pain.  There  is  no  Nerve  in  Mind, 
therefore  no  Mind  in  Nerve.  No  Matter  in 
Mind,  therefore  no  Mind  in  Matter.  No  Mat- 
ter in  Life,  therefore  no  Life  in  Matter.  No 
Matter  in  Good,  therefore  no  Good  in  Matter. 

"  God  is  the  Principle "  of  true  Science.  As 
there  is  but  one  God,  there  can  be  but  one  principle 
in  this  Science.  As  there  are  many  stars,  there 
must  be  many  fixed  rules  for  the  demonstration  of 
this  Divine  Principle.  .  .  .  The  Equipollence  of 
the  Stars  above  and  the  Mind  below  show  the  awful 
unreality  of  Evil !  " 

In  the  year  1858,  an  illiterate  peasant  girl  in  the 
lower  Pyrenees,  anaemic  and  neurotic,  once  saw  in 
the  mouth  of  a  cave  beside  the  river  in  the  pic- 
turesque little  city  of  Lourdes,  a  vision  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  all  in  white  save  a  blue  sash.  The  vision 
directed  that  the  cave  be  made  a  sanctuary,  and  that 
many  people  should  come  there  to  pray. 

Since  this  came  into  effect,  the  waters  of  the  cave 
have  healing  powers,  tested  by  hundreds  every  day, 
with  results  which  have  been  variously  estimated. 
The  societies  for  promotion  bring  train-loads  of  pil- 
grims, well  or  ill,  from  all  parts  of  the  neigh- 
boring nations,  even  from  places  as  distant  as 
Lille  and  Valenciennes,  more  than  800,000  per- 
sons per  year  coming  to  the  cave  in  a  single 
summer. 


124  Reality  and  Illusion 

The  method  pursued,  as  seen  by  the  present 
writer,  is  thus  described  by  an  observer  (G.  Mares), 
whose  account  in  French  I  here  translate : 

"  A  priest  is  in  the  pulpit.  .  .  .  The  songs  al- 
ternate with  the  prayers,  which  are  cut  short  by 
brusque  supplications,  uttered  often  with  the  tone 
of  orders,  '  Seigneur,  sauvez  nos  malades ! '  or  by 
tender  invocations,  '  Seigneur,  ayez  pitie  de  nous ! ' 
With  a  gesture,  a  word,  a  sign,  the  preacher  en- 
forces obedience  on  the  immense  company.  '  Les 
bras  en  croix ! '  '  Agenouillez-vous/  '  Prosternez- 
vous ! '  '  Baisez  la  terre ! '  And  then  the  arms  are 
raised,  the  knees  are  bent,  the  foreheads  bowed,  the 
lips  touch  the  earth.  In  this  time,  the  porters  for 
the  men,  the  sisters  of  charity  for  the  women,  un- 
dress the  patients  and  plunge  them  into  the  icy 
waters  of  the  bathing  pools.  During  the  bath  the 
prayers  continue,  warmer,  more  eager,  louder  and 
higher  in  pitch,  as  though  forcing  Heaven  to  cast 
down  a  miracle.  Then  a  man,  a  woman,  a  child, 
falls  down  crying :  *  Je  suis  gueri !  Je  suis  guerie.' 
Then  the  '  Magnificat '  rings  out,  sung  by  ten  thou- 
sand voices.  While  helped  forward  by  the  assistants, 
the  one  thus  healed  goes  to  the  '  bureau  of  consta- 
tation,'  where  the  physicians  question  him,  feel  his 
pulse,  hear  his  breathing,  and  decide  whether  this 
is  a  complete  cure,  an  amelioration,  or  simply  for- 
getfulness  of  pain  under  the  excitement  of  a  passing 
wave  of  feeling." 

The  actual  miracles,  it  is  claimed  by  a  resident 


Reality  and  Illusion  125 

physician,  amount  to  about  one  per  week,  and  col- 
lections are  made  for  the  relief  of  the  "  incurables." 

Cesare  Lombroso,  writing  of  the  operations  of 
Madame  Eusapia  Paladino,  claims  that  "  in  the 
psychological  atmosphere  of  the  medium  in  a  trance 
and  by  the  medium's  own  action,  the  conditions  of 
matter  are  modified.  Just  as  if  the  space  in  which 
the  phenomenon  takes  place  belonged  not  to  three, 
but  to  four,  dimensions  in  which  .  .  .  the  law  of 
gravity  and  the  law  of  the  impenetrability  of  mat- 
ter should  suddenly  fail,  and  the  laws  that  rule 
time  and  space  should  suddenly  cease,  so  that  a 
body  from  a  far-off  point  may  all  at  once  find 
itself  near  by,  and  you  may  find  a  bunch  of  fresh- 
est flowers  in  your  coat  pocket  without  their  show- 
ing any  trace  of  being  spoiled." 

"  Let  us  not  be  deceived  by  appearances,"  says 
the  occultist  D'Assier.  "  Let  us  be  on  our  guard 
that,  in  exploring  the  shades,  we  may  not  take  a 
shade  of  reasoning  for  reasoning  itself." 

It  is  said  that  "  Logic  as  well  as  Magic  has  its 
Phantasmal  Double,  and  when  Truth  dips  wearily 
under  oblique  suns,  the  two  are  apt  to  range  very 
far  apart." 

When  an  electric  current,  whatever  that  may  be, 
is  passed  through  a  glass  tube  from  which  most 
of  the  air  has  been  exhausted,  various  peculiar 
phenomena  are  shown.  There  is  an  appearance  of 
bluish  light,  and  from  certain  parts  of  the  ap- 
paratus peculiar  rays  are  given  off  which  do  not 


126  Reality  and  Illusion 

appear  as  rays  at  all.  Ordinary  light  rays  pass 
readily  through  water,  glass  or  crystal,  and  we  call 
these  objects  transparent.  Through  wood  or  cloth 
or  stone  they  will  not  pass;  hence  these  objects  are 
said  to  be  opaque.  And  the  rays  of  light  may  be 
diverted  from  their  course  by  passing  at  an  angle 
from  one  transparent  body  to  another.  This  prop- 
erty, known  as  refraction,  is  the  cause  of  the  for- 
mation of  images  by  convex  transparent  bodies  or 
lenses.  But,  strangely,  the  rays  of  light  above 
mentioned  do  not  act  like  ordinary  light.  All  ob- 
jects are  transparent  to  them,  though  not  in  equal 
degree.  Not  being  stopped  by  dense  bodies  they 
are  not  refracted.  Not  being  affected  by  lenses, 
they  do  not  produce  vision  in  the  eye.  As  we  can- 
not see  them,  to  the  eye  they  are  not  light.  But 
their  effect  on  chemical  decomposition  is  the  same 
as  that  of  light.  Hence,  while  not  available  for 
vision,  they  can  be  used  in  photography.  But  not 
being  refracted,  they  produce  no  definite  image  on 
the  sensitive  plate.  But  they  may  give  rise  to 
shadows.  They  do  not  pass  through  all  opaque  ob- 
jects with  equal  readiness.  Hence  to  place  an 
opaque  body  between  the  rays  and  a  sensitized  plate 
would  be  to  cast  some  kind  of  a  shadow  on  that 
plate.  The  shadow  means  an  arrest  of  the  chem- 
ical changes  which  are  the  basis  of  photography. 
Then,  if  the  opaque  body  be  not  in  all  parts  of 
equal  density,  the  shadow  becomes  deeper  in  some 
places  than  in  others.  This  gives  on  the  photo- 


Reality  and  Illusion  127 

graphic  plate  some  idea  of  the  intimate  nature  of 
the  object  photographed.  For  the  density  is  not 
merely  a  matter  of  the  surface  of  bodies.  It  per- 
tains to  the  interior,  which  in  an  opaque  object  can- 
not be  seen,  but  which  nevertheless  may  be  photo- 
graphed in  this  fashion  by  these  peculiar  rays. 

This  line  of  investigation  was  lately  developed  in 
experiment  by  Professor  Rontgen,  and  the  strange 
character  of  the  "  X-rays  "  or  "  cathode  rays  "  is 
now  a  matter  known  to  every  one.  By  means  of 
these  non-refracting  rays,  shadow  photographs  can 
be  made,  showing  the  bones  of  the  skeleton,  im- 
bedded bullets,  the  contents  of  a  pocket-book,  or 
any  similar  hidden  object  which  has  a  nature  or  a 
density  unlike  that  of  its  containing  surface.  These 
experiments  of  Rontgen  have  been  varied  and  veri- 
fied in  every  conceivable  way.  A  wonderful  my- 
thology is  growing  up  around  them,  to  the  confusion 
of  those  who  have  not  paid  attention  to  the  series 
of  experiments  which  made  Rontgen's  discoveries 
simple  and  inevitable. 

For  example,  in  a  thousand  places  the  Rontgen 
rays  and  the  bacilli  of  disease  are  made  to  work  to- 
gether to  fill  the  purse  of  the  enterprising  physi- 
cian. The  doctor  examines  the  internal  organs  of 
the  patient  with  the  fluorescent  tubes.  He  finds  out 
how  and  where  the  germs  of  disease  are  working 
their  devastation.  Then  he  turns  the  mysterious 
X-rays  upon  these  germs  and  they  are  checked  in 
their  career  of  ruin :  shrivelled  up,  it  may  be,  under 


128  Reality  and  Illusion 

this  marvelous  light,  as  caterpillars  shrivel  on  a  hot 
shovel.  Another  physician  distributes  his  remedies 
by  electric  wire,  one  end  in  the  bottle  and  the  other 
in  the  mouth  of  the  patient,  miles  away.  Still  other 
physicians,  wise  in  their  generation,  use  the  X-rays 
and  the  microbes  and  the  electric  currents  with  other 
mysterious  agencies  equally  for  their  own  profit  or 
comfort.  Now  that  the  X-rays  have  become  some- 
what familiar  and  matter  of  course,  the  still  more 
wonderful  emanations  of  radium  are  made  to  do 
the  same  things  and,  in  a  fashion,  equally  regard- 
less of  the  lessons  of  chemistry  and  of  physiology. 
The  medicine  man  of  the  Modocs  by  other  incanta- 
tions of  his  own  calls  up  the  microbe  of  disease, 
which  he  finally  spits  out,  a  trout  perhaps,  or  a 
wood-boring  grub,  or  a  small  lizard — from  his 
own  mouth.  There  have  been  occult  and  esoteric 
methods  in  medicine  since  the  first  Old  Man  of  the 
Mountains  learned  to  look  wise.  The  rabbit's  foot 
for  good  luck,  the  cold  potato  for  rheumatism,  cel- 
ery for  the  nerves,  and  sarsaparilla  for  the  blood, 
are  typical  methods  as  old  as  humanity.  But  quack- 
ery and  pretense  do  not  diminish  our  debt  to  hon- 
est medicine  and  surgery,  however  much  it  may 
tend  to  obscure  it. 

Some  one  asked  Dr.  Mesmer,  the  great  apostle  of 
animal  magnetism,  which  was  the  form  taken  by 
"  faith  cure  "  in  the  last  century,  why  he  ordered 
his  patient  to  bathe  in  river  water  rather  than  in 
well-water.  His  answer  was  that  "  the  river  water 


Reality  and  Illusion  129 

was  exposed  to  the  sun's  rays."  When  further  asked 
what  effect  sunshine  had  other  than  to  warm  the 
water,  he  replied :  "  Dear  doctor,  the  reason  why  all 
water  exposed  to  the  rays  of  the  sun  is  superior  to 
other  water  is  because  it  is  magnetized — since 
twenty  years  ago  I  magnetized  the  sun !  " 

Benjamin  Franklin,  writing  in  praise  of  life  in 
the  open  air,  once  said: 

"  It  is  recorded  of  Methusalem,  who,  being  the 
longest  liver,  may  be  supposed  to  have  best  pre- 
served his  health,  that  he  slept  always  in  the  open 
air;  for  when  he  had  lived  five  hundred  years  an 
angel  said  to  him :  '  Arise,  Methusalem,  and  build 
thee  an  house,  for  thou  shalt  live  five  hundred  years 
longer.'  But  Methusalem  answered  and  said :  '  If 
I  am  to  live  but  five  hundred  years  longer  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  build  me  a  house;  I  will  sleep  in 
the  air  as  I  have  been  used  to  do.' ' 

A  critic  said  that  nowhere  in  the  sacred  records 
could  this  narration  be  found.  An  obvious  re- 
joinder was  that  this  did  not  matter,  if  the  story 
was  true.  Was  the  story  true?  And  does  it  mat- 
ter? 

Through  the  Middle  Ages  experimenters  of 
all  grades  were  engaged  in  the  task  of  finding  the 
means  by  which  base  metals  could  be  transmuted 
into  gold.  It  was  possible  in  the  chemical  labora- 
tory to  do  many  things  which  seemed  equally  dif- 
ficult, and,  to  the  common  mind,  far  more  mysteri- 
ous. In  the  philosophy  of  the  day,  and,  perhaps,  in 


130  Reality  and  Illusion 

our  own  time  as  well,  there  was  every  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  transmutation  of  metals  was  possible. 
But  it  never  was  accomplished,  and  many  a  learned 
alchemist  went  to  his  grave,  the  work  of  his  life 
a  confessed  failure. 

Yet  this  very  day,  the  daily  press  gives  the  rec- 
ord of  successful  alchemy.  One  famous  metal- 
lurgist of  world-wide  reputation  (all  these  men 
have  a  "  world-wide  reputation  "  with  one  another) 
has  subjected  silver  to  great  pressure  till  it  be- 
comes yellow,  soft,  and  heavy,  just  like  gold.  All 
the  difference  is  in  the  density — 16  to  I.  Con- 
densed silver  is  gold,  so  the  newspaper  maintains, 
and  the  problem  of  alchemy  is  solved  at  last.  By 
these  experiments  six  ounces  of  silver  make  but 
four  ounces  of  gold,  one-third  of  the  substance  be- 
ing somehow  lost  in  the  process.  But  with  im- 
proved appliances  the  third  should  be  saved  and  the 
finances  of  the  world  may  be  reconstructed  on  a 
basis  of  genuine  bimetallism,  gold  being  made  when 
wanted  from  the  condensation  of  silver.  Yet  all- 
important  as  this  discovery  should  be,  neither  chem- 
istry nor  finance  pays  any  attention  to  it.  Wall 
Street  is  not  disturbed  by  shadows;  neither  is  sci- 
ence. Common  sense  demands  that  the  experi- 
ments be  verified  and  the  steps  which  led  to  them 
be  made  known  before  considering  for  a  moment 
the  probability  that  there  is  any  truth  in  a  wander- 
ing rumor  of  the  daily  papers. 

A  writer  on  the  fruitful  topic  of  Reincarnation 


Reality  and  Illusion  131 

has  traced  the  ego  or  soul  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
from  its  first  incarnation  in  the  wilds  of  Tartary, 
to  the  Jewish  adept,  called  Jeusu,  thence  to  Alex- 
ander, Alaric,  Charlemagne,  Edward  the  Black 
Prince,  Henry  VIII,  a  Cornish  fisherman,  an 
African  King,  a  Staten  Island  carpenter,  a  Har- 
vard Senior,  and  an  explorer  in  the  Pennine  Alps. 
His  soul,  ripening  in  1893,  had  reached  to  a  hermit 
guide  in  the  Adirondacks,  thirty  generations  in 
all  from  crudity  to  relative  perfection,  with  "  but 
one  necessary  experience,  that  of  womanhood,  yet 
to  undergo." 

"  Up  to  a  certain  point,"  continues  this  in- 
vestigator, "  souls  develop  as  wild  vegetation  does, 
by  the  action  of  laws,  external  and  internal,  and 
their  own  inherent  instincts.  Then,  as  a  gardener 
takes  a  wild  crab-tree,  prunes,  cultivates,  trains, 
nourishes,  plants  its  seeds  in  different  soils,  until 
he  has  a  fine  fruit,  good  for  human  use,  so  the 
gods  take  a  soul  and  prune  it  until  it  is  fit  to  nour- 
ish by  example  and  precept  the  souls  of  other  men, 
and  to  pass  by  our  earth  to  other  planets. 

The  soul  of  Alexander,  on  leaving  the  body  of 
Henry  VIII,  passed  under  the  immediate  care  of 
the  gods,  and  the  fourth  stage  of  its  existence  be- 
gan the  phase  of  purification.  For  as  fruit  may 
rot  because  of  too  much  sunshine,  so  may  soul. 
And  all  rot  must  be  purged  away."  But  a  leaf 
rots,  through  the  life  and  energy  of  its  concealed 
bacteria.  Nothing,  as  we  now  believe,  can  decay 


132  Reality  and  Illusion 

of  its  own  force.  Can  there  be  bacilli  hidden  in  the 
tissues  of  reincarnated  souls?  Is  the  hypothesis 
of  souls  rotting  too  vague  and  too  remote,  there- 
fore from  verifiability  to  be  considered  as  a  serious 
hypothesis  at  all?  Perhaps  the  above  instance  may 
remind  us,  that  one  of  the  most  prolific  sources  of 
error  lies  in  the  confusion  of  analogy  with  homol- 
ogy,  of  fleeting  or  incidental  resemblance  with  fun- 
damental identity.  Because  a  certain  likeness  in 
form  or  function  may  appear,  it  is  inferred  that 
like  similarities  may  exist  in  those  matters  which 
do  not  appear.  Such  reasoning  forms  a  large  part 
of  most  discussions  of  politics  and  theology.  It  is 
likewise  not  unknown  in  science.  For  example,  a 
well-known  investigator  writes  from  the  University 
of  Cambridge: 

"  Inert  matter  has  in  truth  more  life  than  has 
been  ascribed  to  it.  It  is  by  a  process  of  sifting 
out,  or,  in  other  words,  by  Natural  Selection,  that 
life,  as  we  know  it,  has  been  evolved.  The  evolu- 
tion is  in  the  assortment  of  monads.  The  tendency 
throughout  nature  is  towards  harmony,  but  there 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  pre-established  harmony. 
Nay,  rather,  everything  seems  to  have  been  hig- 
gledy-piggledy, and  to  be  gradually  settling  down. 
When  there  is  harmony  among  monads  there  is 
good;  when  there  is  discord  there  is  evil." 

"If  you  will  carry  the  left  hind  foot  of  a  rabbit 
in  your  lower  vest  pocket,  you  will  have  luck  all 
your  days."  When  the  Klondyke  fever  was  at  its 


Reality  and  Illusion  133 

height,  Dr.  Fletcher  B.  Dresslar  tells  us,  "  a  miner 
wrote  back  to  his  father  in  this  wise:  '  If  you  and 
the  boys  can  kill  any  rabbits  up  in  the  hills  send  the 
feet  to  me,  and  I  will  dispose  of  the  lot  in  round 
figures.  I  never  saw  men  try  to  press  their  luck 
as  they  do  here.  A  gambler  arrived  from  St.  Louis 
over  the  Dalton  trail,  and,  knowing  that  he  would 
find  other  gamblers,  he  brought  along  a  dozen  rab- 
bits' feet,  and  sold  out  the  lot  for  $50  each.'  "  The 
belief  in  the  luck  of  a  rabbit's  foot  goes  with  this 
ancient  maxim :  "  When  cold  chills  run  down  your 
back,  it  means  that  a  rabbit  is  silently  running  over 
your  grave." 

One  Sunday  a  gambler  at  Monte  Carlo  found  his 
way  to  the  English  Church  in  the  vicinity,  and  upon 
hearing  the  number  of  the  hymn  announced,  was 
"  impressed  with  the  feeling "  that  this  was  a 
"  lucky  number  "  to  bet  on,  and  immediately  left 
the  church  for  the  gambling  table.  He  staked 
heavily  on  this  number  and  won.  Following  up 
the  suggestion,  he  went  to  church  the  next  Sun- 
day and  remained  long  enough  to  get  the  number 
of  the  hymn  announced,  staked  on  it,  and  won 
again.  Upon  confiding  the  secret  of  his  success 
to  his  friends,  they,  too,  went  to  church.  The  con- 
tagion spread,  until  the  exodus  after  the  hymn  be- 
came so  marked  that  the  rector  was  painfully  con- 
scious of  it,  and,  on  learning  of  the  cause,  took  oc- 
casion to  protect  himself,  and  the  good  name  of  his 
church,  by  announcing  from  his  pulpit  that  in  the 


134  Reality  and  Illusion 

future  no  hymn  whose  number  was  less  than  37 
would  be  selected.  This  number  was  designated 
because  on  the  roulette  table  the  highest  number  is 
36.  But  the  strangest  and  most  interesting  thing 
about  this  story  is  the  fact  that  it  is  a  true  story. 

"  Superstitions,"  says  Dr.  Dresslar,  "  represent 
in  part  those  conclusions  men  have  adopted  to  free 
the  mind  from  the  strain  of  uncompleted  thinking. 
Men  are  naturally  driven  to  conclusions  regarding 
the  meaning  and  significance  of  those  phenomena 
which  appear  in  their  minds.  There  is  no  physi- 
ological or  psychological  equilibrium  unless  the 
mind  comes  to  rest  in  a  conclusion.  It  is  physically 
and  mentally  very  tiring  to  hold  in  the  mind  a  series 
of  conditions,  and  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  them 
from  shooting  together  into  some  sort  of  a  denoue- 
ment. The  untrained  and  instinctive  mind  reaches 
conclusions  quickly,  for  this  is  temporarily  the  line 
of  least  resistance.  ...  It  may  accept  the  generali- 
zations passed  down  to  it  by  tradition,  for  it  is 
easier  to  accept  an  explanation  authoritatively  given, 
than  to  frame  one. 

"  Nothing  will  rid  humanity  of  superstition  but 
education.  And  this  education  must  not  stop  short 
of  the  habit  of  scientific  method  and  scientific  feel- 
ing. A  student  at  work  in  the  laboratory  learns 
soon  that  Nature  tells  no  falsehood  and  that  her  laws 
are  inexorable.  The  scientific  worker  nowhere  has 
any  use  for  the  conception  of  luck,  and  so  acquires 
the  habit  of  disregarding  all  such  superstitions." 


Reality  and  Illusion  135 

Man  must  learn,  as  Emerson  tells  us,  that  *  Every 
thing  in  nature,  even  motes  and  feathers,  go  by  law 
and  not  by  luck,  and  that  what  he  sows,  he  reaps.' ' 

Dr.  Dresslar  closes  a  wholesome  chapter  on  Super- 
stition and  Education  with  these  words :  "  We  some- 
times flatter  ourselves  that  we  have  attained  almost 
unto  freedom.  But  I  think  even  a  short  study  of 
the  superstitious  tendencies  prevalent  to-day  will  con- 
vince the  most  enthusiastic  that  we  are  in  no  little 
measure  still  slaves  to  the  unreason  of  our  uncivilized 
ancestry.  And  we  shall  never  attain  unto  rational 
living  until  we  are  regenerated  through  the  gospel 
of  truthful  learning;  until  we  acquire  the  habit  of 
fearless  investigation,  persistent  thinking,  and  cour- 
ageous belief."  In  a  similar  vein,  Dr.  Charles  Sedg- 
wick  Minot  assures  us  that  "  the  only  important  dif- 
ference between  the  practical  doctor  and  the  sci- 
entific doctor  is  that  the  patients  of  the  practical  doc- 
tor are  more  likely  to  die."  In  saving  bodies,  and 
even  souls,  the  essential  thing  is  to  know  how. 

But  amid  all  the  wonders  of  science,  non-science, 
dreaming,  fraud  and  insanity  and  pretense,  how 
shall  the  common  man  find  his  way  ?  How  shall  he 
recognize  the  claims  of  truth  among  all  the  other 
voices  and  noises  in  this  vociferous  world?  Is  not 
this  the  answer  of  science,  the  answer  of  common 
sense?  As  to  many  things  the  common  man  may 
not  know  the  whole  truth;  as  to  many  he  perhaps 
need  not  know  anything  whatever.  Where  he  is  not 
concerned  in  any  way  so  that  error  and  truth  are 


136  Reality  and  Illusion 

alike  to  him,  because  they  cannot  affect  his  action,  he 
may  be  powerless  to  decide.  It  is  not  important  that 
he  should  decide.  "  I  do  not  know  "  is  the  affirma- 
tion characteristic  of  the  wise  man.  "  Never  be 
afraid  to  say  I  do  not  know,"  was  a  favorite  admoni- 
tion of  Professor  Agassiz.  It  is  safe  to  believe 
mildly  in  mahatmas  and  norns,  in  hoodoos  and  vou- 
dous,  if  one  does  not  regulate  his  life  according  to 
this  belief.  The  vague  unverified  faith  in  protoplasm, 
in  natural  selection,  or  in  microbes  which  the  aver- 
age man  possesses,  will  serve  him  no  better  so  long 
as  it  remains  vague  and,  therefore,  unverifiable  in 
distinct  sense.  The  difference  appears  when  one  acts 
upon  his  belief.  The  nearer  one's  acquaintance  with 
molecules  or  protoplasm,  the  more  real  and  more 
natural  do  they  appear.  The  soundness  of  our 
knowledge  is  tested  by  the  results  of  our  dealings 
with  these  things.  The  microbe  is  as  authentic  as 
the  cabbage  to  one  engaged  in  dealing  with  it.  Pro- 
toplasm is  as  tangible  as  wheat  or  molasses.  It  is 
possible  to  make  these  hypotheses  progressively  more 
definite,  and  hence  to  verify  them.  But  the  astral 
body  and  the  telepathic  impulse  become  the  more 
vague  the  nearer  we  approach  them;  as  ideas  or 
conceptions  they  import  no  definite  and  identifiable 
consequences  to  the  promise  of  which  they  stand 
committed,  and  action  in  pursuance  of  them  can  con- 
sequently never  test  their  truth.  They  are  irre- 
sponsible figments  of  the  fancy,  and  their  names 
serve  only  as  a  cover  for  our  ignorance  of  the  facts. 


Reality  and  Illusion  137 

The  charm  of  such  words  as  Karma,  Kismet,  and 
Avatar  lies  in  the  fact  that  most  of  those  who  use 
them  have  no  idea  of  what  they  mean.  This  is  the 
attraction  of  Nirvana  and  Devachan.  If  we  know 
not  what  such  words  mean  "  in  terms  of  life,"  then 
they  have  no  meaning.  Not  being  verifiable,  they 
are  mere  words,  and  not  ideas. 

Scientific  induction,  in  its  essence,  is  simply  com- 
mon sense.  The  homely  maxims  of  human  experi- 
ence are  the  beginnings  of  science.  To  know 
enough  "  to  come  in  when  it  rains  "  is  to  know  some- 
thing of  the  science  of  meteorology.  By  scanning 
the  clouds  we  may  know  how  to  come  in  before  it 
rains.  By  observing  the  winds  we  may  tell  what 
clouds  are  coming.  By  studying  the  barometer  we 
may  know  from  what  quarter  winds  and  clouds  may 
be  expected. 

The  discoveries  of  science  are  made  by  steps  which 
are  perfectly  simple  to  those  trained  to  follow  them. 
No  discovery  is  made  by  chance  in  our  day.  None 
come  to  contradict  existing  laws  or  to  discredit  ex- 
isting knowledge.  The  whole  of  no  phenomenon 
is  known  to  man.  The  whole  of  any  truth  can 
never  be.  We  cannot  reach  truth  regarding  the 
framework  of  things,  unless  a  part  of  this  frame- 
work enters  into  our  human  experience.  Science 
deals  with  human  contact  and  interest.  The  un- 
known surrounds  on  all  sides  all  knowledge  in  man's 
possession.  The  beginning,  the  end,  and  the  rami- 
fications are  beyond  his  reach.  He  was  not  present 


138  Reality  and  Illusion 

when  the  foundations  of  the  universe  were  laid.  He 
may  not  be  present  when  they  are  dissolved.  But 
scientific  knowledge,  though  limited,  is  practical  and 
positive  so  far  as  it  goes.  Its  criterion  is  experi- 
ment and  observation.  Every  step  in  observation, 
experiment,  or  induction,  has  been  tested  by  thou- 
sands of  bright  minds,  and  this  testing  has  been  pos- 
sible because  at  each  step  the  effort  was  made  to 
formulate  clearly  in  advance  just  what  the  experi- 
ment or  observation  should  look  for.  He  is  already 
a  master  in  science  who  can  suggest  even  one  new 
experiment,  because  an  experiment  requires  an  ante- 
cedent, intelligent  question  by  which  the  results  of 
the  experiment  may  be  measured.  There  is  nothing 
occult  or  uncanny  in  scientific  methods.  The 
"  magic  wand  "  which  creates  new  species  of  horses 
or  cattle  lies  in  the  hand  of  any  stock-breeder.  The 
magic  key  of  the  electrician,  by  which  the  foam  of 
the  cataract  becomes  the  light  of  the  city,  may  be 
held  by  any  city  council. 

To  take  the  illustrations  given  above :  "  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  a  squash,"  because  the  assumption 
that  the  squash  exists  constitutes  a  safe  basis  for 
action.  On  that  hypothesis  you  can  plant  squashes 
or  raise  squashes  or  make  them  into  pies,  and  this 
is  the  sort  of  thing  we  mean  when  we  say  the  squash 
exists.  The  brightness  of  the  brandy-colored 
world  we  cannot  trust.  It  requires  no  scientific  in- 
struments of  precision  to  record  the  failure  of  the 
man  who  guides  his  life  on  a  basis  of  impressions 


Reality  and  Illusion  139 

made  by  drugs  or  stimulants.  The  transit  of  Venus 
is  no  product  of  fancy.  To  the  astronomer  the  com- 
ing of  the  planet  between  the  earth  and  the  sun  is 
as  certain  a  thing  as  the  coming  of  the  earth  into  its 
own  shadow  at  night.  The  one  incident  is  less  com- 
mon than  the  other,  but  not  more  mysterious.  And 
to  go  to  that  part  of  the  earth  which  is  turned  toward 
the  sun  at  the  moment  of  transit  is  the  simple  com- 
mon-sense thing  to  do  if  one  wishes  to  see  the  transit ; 
to  predict  a  transit  is,  for  the  scientist,  to  predict 
that  at  some  certain  time  and  place  it  will  be  visible. 
The  island,  the  abandoned  hut,  and  the  cooking  uten- 
sils were  only  incidents  to  the  astronomer.  To  the 
natives  these  were  the  only  realities,  and  the  purposes 
of  science  were  to  them  unknown  and  absurd.  To 
the  man  of  common  sense  the  digging  for  treasure 
under  the  direction  of  clairvoyants  seems  ridiculous. 
The  operation  does  not  become  more  wise  when  we 
see  it  through  the  eye  of  science,  for  the  clairvoyant 
cannot  forecast  his  "  probable  error "  from  his 
knowledge  of  the  function  he  professes  to  exercise; 
he  promises  "  treasure,"  but  he  does  not  say  how 
much  or  at  what  precise  spot,  and,  accordingly,  even 
if  treasure  is  found,  we  are  justified  in  our  refusal 
to  admit  that  he  had  any  actual  knowledge  of  it. 

The  spectroscope,  on  the  other  hand,  grows  more 
real  and  more  potent  as  we  study  its  methods  and  re- 
sults. The  process  of  weighing  planets  is  open  to 
all  who  will  continue  their  studies  till  they  under- 
stand it.  The  test  of  knowing  is  doing — doing 


140  Reality  and  Illusion 

something  definite  and  getting  thereby  results 
sensibly  satisfactorily  identical  with  those  which  our 
supposed  knowledge  clearly  and  unequivocally  pre- 
dicted at  the  outset.  The  oceanic  cable  is  in  the 
service  of  all  who  have  concerns  in  another  con- 
tinent. The  phenomena  of  telepathy  have  fled  be- 
fore every  attempt  at  experiment.  The  study  of 
X-rays  is  as  far  from  occultism  or  spiritism  as  the 
manufacture  of  brass  is  from  the  incarnation  of 
mahatmas.  The  mind  healer,  the  faith  healer,  the 
cure  of  disease  by  pious  negation,  the  sale  of  the 
patent  medicine,  the  medical  marvels  of  radium,  the 
wonders  of  the  electric  belt,  the  power  of  animal 
magnetism  (malicious  or  benign),  are  all  witnesses 
of  the  potency  of  suggestion  in  the  untrained  mind. 
To  the  same  class  of  phenomena  the  witch-hazel  rod 
belongs.  Experiment  seems  to  show  that  its  move- 
ments are  due  to  involuntary  muscular  contractions, 
and  that  these  follow  simply  the  preconceived  no- 
tions of  the  holder  of  the  rod.* 

*  Bennet  H.  Brough .  (London,  1892)  gives  the  following 
interesting  quotations  regarding  the  divining  rod : 

Theophilus  Albinus  (Dresden,  1794)  says:  "I  ween  that 
no  more  confounded  thing  is  to  be  found  in  the  world  than 
this  divining  rod  business.  .  .  .  For  evil  and  lying  dealing  is 
best  hidden  amid  this  confusion;  and  in  the  muddiest  water, 
rascality  likes  best  to  fish." — William  Hooson  (London, 
1747)  says :  "  The  dignified  author  of  this  invention  was  a 
German,  and  at  the  last  he  was  deservedly  hanged  for  the 
Cheat."— Says  Dr.  Rossiter  Raymond  (1883):  "In  itself" 
the  divining  rod  "is  nothing.  Its  claims  to  virtues  derived 
from  the  Deity,  from  Satan,  from  affinities  and  sympathies, 


Reality  and  Illusion  141 

Not  long  since  a  sciosophist  proposed  the  theory 
that  the  chemical  elements  were  each  of  them  forms 
of  "  latent  oxygen."  That  this  theory  is  without 
meaning  did  not  disturb  its  author.  His  argument 
was  that  the  business  of  science  was  to  propose  all 
sorts  of  theories.  As  some  apples  on  a  tree  will  be 
sound  so  some  theories  will  be  true.  To  make 
every  conceivable  conjecture  is  the  way  to  hit  on  the 
truth.  His  guess  is  that  gold  and  hydrogen  are 
alike  latent  oxygen.  Some  such  notion  as  to  sci- 
entific theories  is  common  among  cultured  people  of 
all  countries.  To  accept  it  is  to  ignore  the  whole 
history  of  science.  No  advance  in  real  knowledge 
has  come  from  guessing,  or  dreaming,  or  speculat- 
ing, unless  guesses  or  speculations  have  been  based 
on  previous  experience,  and  unless  evidence  in  each 
case  is  amenable  to  the  test  of  action,  and  have 
been  submitted  to  it.  If  we  want  a  picture 
taken  we  find  a  man  who  has  a  camera,  and  who 
knows  how  to  use  it.  If  we  want  the  truth  on  any 
subject  we  must  find  a  man  who  understands  our 
questions,  who  has  the  instruments  or  methods  of 
precision,  and  who  knows  how  to  use  them.  There 
is  no  other  way.  As  well  expect  a  man  without  a 

from  corpuscular  effluvia,  from  electric  currents,  from  pas- 
sive perturbatory  qualities  of  organo-electric  force  are  hope- 
lessly collapsed  and  discarded.  A  whole  library  of  learned 
rubbish  which  remains  to  us  furnishes  jargon  for  charla- 
tans, marvelous  tales  for  fools,  and  amusement  for  anti- 
quarians."— "  The  first  divination,"  observes  Voltaire,  "  took 
place  when  the  first  knave  met  the  first  fool ! " 


142  Reality  and  Illusion 

camera  and  who  knows  not  how  to  use  it  if  he  had 
one,  to  take  a  photograph,  as  to  trust  to  a  logically 
irresponsible  speculator,  guesser,  or  dreamer,  to  find 
out  any  truth.  To  work  without  tools  in  the  world 
of  objective  reality,  can  yield  only  error  and  con- 
fusion. There  is  no  way  to  a  just  conception  of  any 
part  of  the  universe,  except  to  gather  the  realities 
relevant  to  our  needs  and  interests,  to  compare  and 
consider  these  facts  thus  gathered,  to  set  them  in 
order,  and  to  verify  in  action  whatever  theory  may 
seem  to  arise  from  their  relations. 


REALITY  AND  EDUCATION 

"  Life,  like  a  dome  of  many-colored  glass, 
Stains  the  white  radiance  of  Eternity." 

— SHELLEY. 

IF  realities  find  their  test  and  verification  in  ac- 
tion, if  knowledge  finds  its  function  in  the  con- 
duct of  life,  these  principles  should  find  large  ap- 
plication in  the  field  of  Education.  In  youth,  this 
need  of  direct  contact  with  truth  should  be  the  justi- 
fication for  nature-study.  In  manhood,  this  should 
be  the  inspiration  of  scientific  research. 

In  the  present  chapter  I  wish  to  discuss  the  natural 
relation  of  nature-study  to  early  education.  By  na- 
ture-study in  this  sense  I  do  not  mean  the  reading  of 
clever  tales  of  birds  and  beasts,  still  less  sentimental 
essays  on  their  beauty,  their  perfection,  or  the  divine 
purpose  they  serve  in  the  economy  of  nature.  Nor 
yet  do  I  mean  premature  efforts  at  classification,  the 
learning  of  scientific  names,  or  the  names  of  their 
varied  organs  under  dissection.  My  plea  is  for  the 
large  open-air  contact  of  children  with  things  as  they 
are,  the  heritage  of  every  well-nurtured  farm-boy,  of 
every  child  who  has  stood  on  his  feet  in  the  presence 

143 


144  Reality  and  Education 

of  natural  objects.  To  be  as  a  "  part  and  parcel  of 
nature,"  to  act  as  a  natural  person  among  natural 
objects,  is  the  aim  of  nature-study  as  thus  conceived. 
I  shall  try  not  to  overstate  the  case,  nor  to  claim  for 
such  study  any  occult  or  exclusive  power.  It  is  not 
for  us  to  say  so  much  nature-study  in  the  schools,  so 
much  wisdom  and  so  much  virtue  in  the  scholars. 
Moreover,  the  character  of  the  teacher  is  the  largest 
factor  in  the  matter.  But  the  best  teacher  is  the  one 
who  comes  nearest  to  nature — the  one  most  effective 
in  promoting  individual  wisdom. 

To  seek  knowledge  is  better  than  to  accept  it 
ready-made.  To  do  something  with  it  is  better  than 
to  hold  it.  Precepts  of  virtue  are  useless  unless  they 
can  be  built  into  life.  With  the  dawn  of  prenatal 
life,  "  the  gate  of  gifts  is  closed."  We  can  get 
nothing  more.  We  can  only  adjust,  arrange,  em- 
ploy what  we  have.  It  is  the  art  of  life,  out  of  vari- 
ant and  contradictory  materials  passed  down  to  us 
from  our  ancestors,  to  build  up  coherent  and  effective 
individual  character. 

The  essence  of  character-building  lies  in  action. 
The  chief  value  of  nature-study  in  character-build- 
ing is  that,  like  life  itself,  it  deals  with  realities.  The 
experience  of  living  is  itself  a  form  of  nature-study. 
One  must  in  life  make  his  own  observations,  frame 
his  own  inductions,  and  apply  them  in  action  as  he 
goes  along.  The  habit  of  finding  out  the  best  thing  to 
do  next,  and  then  doing  it,  is  the  basis  of  character. 
A  strong  character  is  built  up  by  doing,  not  by  imi- 


Reality  and  Education  145 

tation,  nor  by  feeling,  nor  by  suggestion.  Nature- 
study,  if  it  be  genuine,  is  essentially  doing.  This  is 
the  basis  of  its  effectiveness  as  a  moral  agent.  To 
deal  with  truth  is  necessary  if  we  are  to  know  truth 
when  we  see  it  in  action.  To  know  truth  precedes 
all  sound  morality.  There  is  a  great  impulse  to  vir- 
tue in  knowing  something  well.  To  know  it  well  is 
to  come  into  direct  contact  with  its  facts  or  laws,  to 
feel  that  its  qualities  and  forces'  are  inevitable.  To 
do  this  is  the  essence  of  nature-study  in  all  its 
forms. 

The  rocks  and  shells,  the  frogs  and  lilies,  always 
tell  the  actual  truth  so  far  as  it  goes.  They  give 
clear  and  decisive  answers  to  distinct  and  clear  ques- 
tions. Their  relations  to  our  lives  are  such  that  the 
child  can  be  led  to  ask  concerning  them  simple  and 
definite  questions  which  shall  at  the  same  time  be  of 
vital  interest  to  him.  Thus,  through  commerce  with 
them,  he  can  learn  how  rightly  to  know.  Associa- 
tions with  these,  under  right  direction,  will  build  up 
a  habit  of  truthfulness,  for  nature  is  always  truth- 
ful. She  teaches  truth  from  original  documents. 
Every  leaf  on  the  tree  is  an  original  document  in 
botany.  When  a  thousand  are  used,  or  used  up,  the 
archives  of  nature  are  just  as  full  as  ever. 

From  their  intimate  affinity  with  the  problems  of 
life,  the  problems  of  nature-study  derive  especial 
value.  Because  life  deals  with  realities,  the  visible 
agents  of  the  overmastering  fates,  it  is  well  that  our 
children  should  study  the  real,  rather  than  the  con- 


146  Reality  and  Education 

ventional.  Let  them  come  in  contact  with  the  in- 
evitable, instead  of  the  "  made-up,"  with  laws  and 
forces  which  can  be  traced  in  objects  and  forms 
actually  before  them,  rather  than  with  those  which 
seem  arbitrary  or  which  remain  inscrutable.  To  use 
concrete  illustrations :  there  is  a  greater  moral  value 
as  well  as  a  more  easily  available  educative  value  in 
the  study  of  magnets  than  in  the  distinction  be- 
tween shall  and  will,  in  the  study  of  birds  or  rocks 
than  in  that  of  diacritical  marks  or  postage  stamps, 
in  the  development  of  a  frog  than  in  the  longer  or 
shorter  catechism,  in  the  study  of  things  than  in  the 
study  of  abstractions.  There  is  doubtless  a  law  un- 
derlying abstractions  and  conventionalities,  a  law  of 
catechisms,  but  it  does  not  so  readily  appear  to  the 
student,  nor  so  promptly  lay  hold  upon  his  interest. 
Its  consideration,  therefore,  does  not  so  effectively 
strengthen  his  impression  of  inevitable  truth.  There 
is  the  greatest  moral  value,  as  well  as  intellectual 
value,  in  the  independence  that  comes  from  knowing, 
and  knowing  that  one  knows  and  why  he  knows. 
Such  knowledge  gives  backbone  to  character.  Learn- 
ing to  know  what  is  right  and  why  it  is  right, 
through  doing  it,  and  for  the  sake  of  doing  it,  is  the 
basis  of  character. 

The  nervous  system  of  the  animal  or  the  man  is 
essentially  a  device  to  make  action  effective  and  to 
keep  it  safe.  The  animal  is  a  machine  in  action. 
Toward  the  end  of  motion  all  other  mental  processes 
tend.  All  functions  of  the  brain,  all  forms  of  nerve 


Reality  and  Education  147 

impulse,  are  modifications  of  the  simple  reflex  action, 
the  automatic  transfer  of  sensations  gathered  from 
external  objects  into  movements  of  the  body. 

The  sensory  nerves  furnish  the  animal  or  man  at 
his  demand  all  knowledge  of  the  external  world. 
The  brain,  sitting  in  darkness,  as  it  were,  judges 
these  sensations,  and  sends  out  corresponding  im- 
pulses to  action.  The  sensory  nerves  are  the  brain's 
sole  teachers,  but  for  them  it  would  continue  to  sit 
in  darkness.  The  motor  nerves,  and,  through  them, 
the  muscles  are  the  brain's  only  servants.  The  un- 
trained brain,  the  brain  that  does  not  know  how  to 
ask  questions,  nor  when  it  has  received  answers, 
learns  its  lessons  poorly,  and  its  commands  are  vacil- 
lating and  ineffective.  The  brain  which  has  been 
misused,  shows  its  defects  in  ill-chosen  actions.  The 
great  argument  for  temperance  rests  on  this;  all 
nerve-tampering  causes  the  nerves  to  lie;  a  lying 
brain  means  unbalanced  action. 

The  senses  are  intensely  practical  in  their  rela- 
tion to  life.  The  processes  of  natural  selection  make 
and  keep  them  so.  Only  those  phases  of  reality 
which  our  ancestors  could  render  into  action  are 
shown  to  us  by  our  senses.  These  senses  tell  us 
superficial  but  essential  truth  about  rocks  and  trees, 
food  and  shelter,  friends  and  enemies.  They  an- 
swer no  problem  in  chemistry.  They  say  nothing 
about  atom  or  molecule.  They  give  us  no  ultimate 
facts.  Whatever  was  so  small  that  our  ancestors 
could  not  handle  it  is  too  small  for  us  now  to  see. 


148  Reality  and  Education 

Whatever  is  too  distant  to  be  reached  is  not  truth- 
fully reported.  The  "  X-rays  "of  light  we  cannot 
see,  because  our  ancestors  could  not  deal  with  them. 
The  sun  and  stars,  the  clouds  and  the  sky,  are  more 
extended  than  they  appear  to  be.  Our  sensitiveness 
fails  as  the  square  of  the  distance  increases.  Were 
our  nervous  systems  to  become  suddenly  receptive  to 
all  forms  of  truth  we  should  be  smothered  by  the  in- 
rush of  sensations.  We  should  be  overwhelmed  by 
the  multiplicity  and  the  intensity  of  our  own  emo- 
tions. Truth-establishing  response  in  action  would 
become  impossible.  Our  questionings  of  nature 
would  be  answered  in  a  strange  and  sudden  din  of 
Babel,  and  no  longer  in  a  fitting  and  familiar  tongue. 
Hyperesthesia,  or  abnormal  susceptibility,  in  any  or 
all  of  the  senses  is  a  source  of  confusion,  not  of 
strength.  It  is  essentially  a  phase  of  nerve-disorder, 
and  it  shows  itself  in  ineffectiveness,  not  in  increased 
power. 

Besides  immediate  sense-perceptions,  the  so-called 
realities,  the  brain  retains  also  traces  of  the  percep- 
tions which  have  been  impressed  upon  it  in  the  past, 
and  which  are  not  wholly  lost.  Memory-pictures 
crowd  the  mind,  mingling  with  pictures  which  are 
brought  in  afresh  by  the  senses.  The  force  of  sug- 
gestion causes  the  mental  states  or  conditions  of 
one  person  to  repeat  themselves  in  another.  Ab- 
normal conditions  of  the  brain  itself  furnish  another 
series  of  feelings  with  which  the  brain  must  deal. 
Moreover,  the  brain  is  charged  with  impulses  to 


Reality  and  Education  149 

action  passed  on  from  generation  to  generation,  sur- 
viving because  they  are  useful.  With  all  these  arises 
the  vital  necessity  for  wise  choice  as  a  function  of 
the  mind.  The  mind  must  neglect  or  suppress  all 
sensations  which  it  cannot  weave  into  action.  The 
dog  sees  nothing  that  does  not  belong  to  its  little 
world.  The  man  in  search  of  mushrooms  "  tramples 
down  oak-trees  in  his  walks."  To  select  the  sensa- 
tions that  concern  us,  to  keep  ourselves  aloof  from 
those  which  do  not,  is  the  essence  of  the  power  of  at- 
tention. This  power,  manifesting  itself  in  the  sup- 
pression of  undesired  actions,  and  in  the  enforce- 
ment of  those  desired,  is  called  the  will.  To  find 
data  for  choice  among  accessible  objects  of  percep- 
tion with  the  corresponding  possible  motor  responses 
is  a  function  of  the  intellect.  Intellectual  per- 
sistency based  on  persistency  of  interests  is  the 
foundation  of  individual  character. 

As  the  conditions  of  life  become  more  complex, 
it  becomes  necessary  for  action  to  be  more  care- 
fully controlled.  Wisdom  is  the  parent  of  virtue. 
After  the  stage  of  verification,  knowing  what  should 
be  done  logically  precedes  doing  it.  Good  impulses 
and  good  intentions  do  not  make  acti  m  right  or  safe. 
In  the  long  run,  action  is  tested  not  by  its  motives, 
but  by  its  results. 

The  child,  when  he  comes  into  the  world,  has 
everything  to  learn.  His  nervous  system  is  charged 
with  tendencies  to  reaction  and  impulses  to  motion, 
which  have  their  origin  in  survivals  from  ancestral 


150  Reality  and  Education 

demands.  Exact  knowledge,  by  which  his  own 
actions  can  be  made  exact,  must  come  through  his 
own  experience.  The  experience  of  others  must  be 
expressed  in  terms  of  his  own  before  it  becomes  wis- 
dom. Wisdom,  to  repeat,  is  knowing  what  it  is 
best  to  do  next.  Virtue  is  doing  it.  Doing  right 
becomes  a  habit,  if  it  is  pursued  long  enough.  It 
becomes  a  "  second  nature,"  or,  we  may  say,  a 
higher  heredity.  The  formation  of  a  higher  hered- 
ity of  wisdom  and  virtue,  of  knowing  right  and  do- 
ing right,  is  the  chief  element  of  character-building. 

The  moral  character  is  based  on  knowing  the  best, 
choosing  the  best,  and  doing  the  best.  It  cannot  be 
built  up  on  imitation  alone.  By  imitation,  sug- 
gestion, and  conventionality  the  masses  are  formed 
and  controlled.  To  build  up  a  man  is  a  nobler 
process,  demanding  materials  and  methods  of  a 
higher  order.  The  growth  of  man  is  the  assertion 
of  individuality.  Only  robust  men  can  make  his- 
tory. Others  may  adorn  it,  disfigure  it,  or  vulgar- 
ize it. 

The  first  relation  of  the  child  to  external  things  is 
expressed  in  this :  What  can  I  do  with  it  ?  What  is 
its  relation  to  me?  The  perception  goes  over  into 
thought,  the  thought  into  action.  Thus  the  im- 
pression of  the  object  is  built  into  the  little  universe 
of  his  mind.  The  object  and  the  action  it  implies 
are  closely  associated.  As  more  objects  are  appre- 
hended, more  complex  relations  arise,  but  the  primal 
condition  remains — What  can  I  do  with  it  ?  Percep- 


Reality  and  Education  151 

tion,  thought,  action — this  is  the  natural  sequence  of 
each  completed  mental  process.  As  volition  passes 
over  into  action,  so  does  science  into  art,  knowledge 
into  power,  wisdom  into  virtue. 

By  the  study  of  realities  wisdom  is  built  up.  In 
the  relations  of  objects  he  can  touch  and  move,  the 
child  comes  to  find  the  limitations  of  his  powers,  the 
laws  that  govern  phenomena,  and  to  which  his  ac- 
tions must  be  in  obedience.  So  long  as  he  deals  with 
realities,  these  laws  stand  in  their  proper  relation. 
"  So  simple,  so  natural,  so  true,"  says  Agassiz. 
"  This  is  the  charm  of  dealing  with  Nature  herself. 
She  brings  us  back  to  absolute  truth  so  often  as  we 
wander." 

So  long  as  a  child  is  led  from  one  reality  to  an- 
other, never  lost  in  words  or  in  abstractions,  so  long 
this  natural  relation  remains.  What  can  I  do  with 
it?  is  the  beginning  of  wisdom.  What  is  It  to  me? 
is  the  basis  of  personal  virtue. 

While  a  child  remains  about  the  home  of  his 
boyhood,  he  knows  which  way  is  north  and  which  is 
east.  He  does  not  need  to  orientate  himself,  because 
in  his  short  trips  he  never  loses  his  sense  of  space 
direction.  But  let  him  take  a  rapid  journey  in  the 
cars  or  in  the  night,  and  he  may  find  himself  in 
strange  relations.  The  sun  no  longer  rises  in  the 
east,  the  sense  of  reality  in  directions  is  gone,  and  it 
is  a  painful  effort  for  him  to  join  the  new  im- 
pressions to  the  old.  The  process  of  orientation  is 
a  difficult  one,  and  if  facing  the  sunrise  in  the  morn- 


152  Reality  and  Education 

ing  were  a  deed  of  necessity  in  his  religion,  this 
deed  would  not  be  accurately  performed. 

This  homely  illustration  applies  to  the  child.  He 
is  taken  from  his  little  world  of  realities,  a  world  in 
which  the  sun  rises  in  the  east,  the  dogs  bark,  the 
grasshopper  leaps,  the  water  falls,  and  the  relations 
of  cause  and  effect  appear  plain  and  natural.  In 
these  simple  relations  moral  laws  become  evident. 
"  The  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire,"  and  this  dread 
shows  itself  in  action.  The  child  learns  what  to  do 
next,  and  to  some  extent  does  it.  By  practice  in 
personal  responsibility  in  little  things,  he  can  be  led 
to  wisdom  in  large  ones.  For  the  power  to  do  great 
things  in  the  moral  world  comes  from  doing  the 
right  in  small  things.  It  is  not  often  that  a  man 
who  really  knows  that  there  is  a  right  does  the 
wrong.  Men  who  do  wrong  are  either  ignorant 
that  there  is  a  right,  or  else  they  have  failed  in  their 
orientation  and  look  upon  right  as  wrong.  It  is 
the  clinching  of  good  purposes  with  good  actions 
that  makes  the  man.  This  is  the  higher  heredity 
that  is  not  the  gift  of  father  or  mother,  but  is  the 
man's  own  work  on  himself. 

The  impression  of  realities  is  the  basis  of  sound 
morals  as  well  as  of  sound  judgment.  By  adding 
near  things  to  near,  the  child  grows  in  knowledge. 
"  Knowledge  set  in  order "  is  science.  Nature- 
study  is  the  beginning  of  science.  It  is  the  science 
of  the  child.  To  the  child,  training  in  methods  of 
acquiring  knowledge  is  more  valuable  than  knowl- 


Reality  and  Education  153 

edge  itself.  In  general,  throughout  life  sound 
methods  are  more  valuable  than  sound  information. 
Self-direction  is  more  important  than  innocence. 
The  fool  may  be  innocent.  Only  the  sane  and  the 
wise  can  be  virtuous. 

It  is  the  function  of  science  to  make  our  knowl- 
edge of  the  small,  the  distant,  the  invisible,  the  mys- 
terious as  accurate  as  our  knowledge  of  the  com- 
mon things  men  have  handled  for  ages.  It  seeks  to 
make  our  knowledge  of  common  things  exact  and 
precise,  that  exactness  and  precision  may  be  trans- 
lated into  action.  The  ultimate  end  of  science,  as 
well  as  its  initial  impulse,  is  the  regulation  of  human 
conduct.  To  make  right  action  possible  and 
prevalent  is  the  function  of  science.  The  "  world 
as  it  is  "  must  be  the  ultimate  inspiration  of  art, 
poetry,  and  religion.  The  world,  as  men  have 
agreed  to  say  it  is,  is  quite  another  matter.  The 
less  our  children  hear  of  this,  the  less  they  will  have 
to  unlearn  in  their  future  development. 

When  a  child  is  taken  from  nature  to  the  schools, 
he  is  usually  brought  into  an  atmosphere  of  con- 
ventionality. Here  he  is  not  to  do,  but  to  imitate; 
not  to  see,  nor  to  handle,  nor  to  create,  but  to  re- 
member. He  is,  moreover,  to  remember  not  his 
own  realities,  but  the  written  or  spoken  ideas  of 
others.  He  is  dragged  through  a  wilderness  of 
grammar,  with  thickets  of  diacritical  marks,  into 
the  desert  of  metaphysics.  He  is  taught  to  do 
right,  not  because  right  action  is  in  the  nature  of 


154  Reality  and  Education 

things,  the  nature  of  himself,  and  the  things  about 
him,  but  because  he  will  be  punished  somehow  if 
he  does  not.  He  is  given  a  medley  of  words  with- 
out ideas.  He  is  taught  declensions  and  conjuga- 
tions without  number  in  his  own  and  other  tongues. 
He  learns  things  easily  by  rote;  so  his  teachers  fill 
him  with  rote-learning.  Hence  grammar  and  lan- 
guage have  become  stereotyped  as  teaching  with- 
out a  thought  as  to  whether  undigested  words  may 
be  intellectual  poison.  And  as  the  good  heart  de- 
pends on  the  good  brain,  undigested  ideas  may  be- 
come moral  poison  as  well.  No  one  can  tell  how 
much  of  the  intellectual  and  moral  discomfort  of 
the  schools  has  been  due  to  intellectual  dyspepsia 
from  undigested  words. 

In  such  manner  the  child  is  bound  to  lose  his  ori- 
entation as  to  the  forces  which  surround  him.  If 
he  does  not  recover  it,  he  will  spend  his  life  in  a 
world  of  unused  fancies  and  realities.  Nonsense 
will  seem  half  truth,  and  his  appreciation  of  truth 
will  be  vitiated  by  lack  of  clearness  of  definition — 
by  its  close  relation  to  nonsense.  That  this  is  no 
slight  defect  can  be  shown  in  every  community. 
There  is  no  intellectual  craze  so  absurd  as  not  to 
have  a  following  among  educated  men  and  women. 
There  is  no  scheme  for  the  renovation  of  the  so- 
cial order  so  silly  that  educated  men  will  not  invest 
their  money  in  it.  There  is  no  medical  fraud  so 
shameless  that  educated  men  will  not  give  it  their 
certificate.  There  is  no  nonsense  so  unscientific 


Reality  and  Education  155 

that  men  called  educated  will  not  accept  it  as  science. 

It  should  be  a  function  of  the  schools  to  build 
up  common  sense.  Folly  should  be  crowded  out 
of  the  schools.  We  have  furnished  costly  asylums 
for  its  accommodation.  That  our  schools  are  in  a 
degree  responsible  for  current  follies,  there  can  be 
no  doubt.  We  have  many  teachers  who  have  never 
seen  truth  in  their  lives.  There  are  many  who 
have  never  felt  the  impact  of  an  idea.  There  are 
many  who  have  lost  their  own  orientation  in  their 
youth,  and  who  have  never  since  been  able  to  point 
out  the  sunrise  to  others.  "  Three  roots  bear  up 
Dominion — Knowledge,  Will,  the  third  Obedience." 
This  statement,  which  Lowell  applies  to  nations, 
belongs  to  the  individual  man  as  well.  It  is  writ- 
ten in  the  structure  of  his  brain — knowledge,  voli- 
tion, action — and  all  three  elements  must  be  sound, 
if  action  is  to  be  safe  or  effective. 

But  obedience  must  be  active,  not  passive.  The 
obedience  of  the  lower  animals  is  automatic,  and 
therefore  in  its  limits  measurably  perfect.  Lack  of 
obedience  means  the  extinction  of  the  race.  Only 
the  obedient  survive,  and  hence  comes  about  obedi- 
ence to  "  sealed  orders,"  obedience  by  reflex  action, 
in  which  the  will  takes  little  part.  In  the  early 
stages  of  human  development,  the  instincts  of 
obedience  were  dominant.  Great  among  these  is 
the  instinct  of  conventionality,  by  which  each  man 
follows  the  path  others  have  found  safe.  The 
Church  and  the  State,  organizations  of  the  strong, 


156  Reality  and  Education 

have  assumed  the  direction  of  the  weak.  It  has 
often  resulted  that  the  wiser  this  direction,  the 
greater  the  weakness  it  was  called  on  to  control. 
The  "  sealed  orders "  of  human  institutions  took 
the  place  of  the  automatism  of  instinct.  Against 
"  sealed  orders  "  the  individual  man  has  been  in  con- 
stant protest.  The  "  warfare  of  science "  was 
part  of  this  struggle.  The  Reformation,  the  re- 
vival of  learning,  the  growth  of  democracy,  are  all 
phases  of  this  great  conflict. 

The  main  function  of  democracy  is  not  good  gov- 
ernment. If  that  were  all,  it  wrould  not  deserve  the 
efforts  spent  on  it.  Better  government  than  any 
king  or  congress  or  democracy  has  yet  given  could 
be  had  in  simpler  and  cheaper  ways.  The  auto- 
matic scheme  of  competitive  examinations  would 
give  us  better  rulers  at  half  the  present  cost.  Even 
an  ordinary  intelligence  office,  or  "  statesman's  em- 
ployment bureau,"  would  serve  us  better  than  con- 
ventions and  elections.  But  a  people  which  could 
be  ruled  in  that  way,  content  to  be  governed  well 
by  forces  outside  itself,  would  not  be  worth  the 
saving.  Government  too  good,  as  well  as  too  bad, 
may  have  a  baneful  influence  on  men.  Its  excel- 
lence is  a  secondary  matter.  The  purpose  of  self- 
government  is  to  intensify  individual  responsibility; 
to  promote  attempts  at  wisdom,  through  which  true 
wisdom  may  come  at  last.  Democracy  is  nature- 
study  on  a  grand  scale.  The  republic  is  a  huge 
laboratory  of  civics,  a  laboratory  in  which  strange 


Reality  and  Education  157 

experiments  are  performed;  but  by  which,  as  in 
other  laboratories,  wisdom  may  arise  from  experi- 
ence, and,  having  arisen,  may  work  itself  out  into 
virtue. 

"  The  oldest  and  best-endowed  university  in  the 
world,"  Dr.  Parkhurst  tells  us,  "  is  Life  itself. 
Problems  tumble  easily  apart  in  the  field  that  refuse 
to  give  up  their  secret  in  the  study  or  even  in  the 
closet.  Reality  is  what  educates  us,  and  reality 
never  comes  so  close  to  us,  with  all  its  powers  of 
discipline,  as  when  we  encounter  it  in  action.  In 
books  we  find  Truth  in  black  and  white;  but  in  the 
rush  of  events  we  see  Truth  at  work.  It  is  only 
when  Truth  is  busy  and  we  are  ourselves  mixed  up 
in  its  activities  that  we  learn  to  know  of  how  much 
we  are  capable,  or  even  the  power  by  which  these 
capabilities  can  be  made  over  into  effect." 

Professor  Wilbur  F.  Jackman  has  well  said: 
"  Children  always  start  with  imitation,  and  very  few 
people  ever  get  beyond  it.  The  true  moral  act,  how- 
ever, is  one  performed  in  accordance  with  a  known 
law  that  is  just  as  natural  as  the  law  which  deter- 
mines which  way  a  stone  shall  fall.  The  individual 
becomes  a  moral  being  in  the  highest  sense  when  he 
chooses  to  obey  this  law  by  acting  in  accordance 
with  it."  Conventionality  is  not  morality,  and  may 
co-exist  with  vice  as  well  as  with  virtue.  Obedience 
has  little  permanence  unless  it  be  intelligent  obedi- 
ence, an  obedience  that  finds  out,  by  working  it  out, 
its  own  justification." 


158  Reality  and  Education 

It  is,  of  course,  true  that  wrong  information  may 
lead  sometimes  to  right  action,  as  falsehood  may 
secure  obedience  to  a  natural  law  which  would  other- 
wise have  been  violated.  But  in  the  long  run  men 
and  nations  pay  dearly  for  every  illusion  they  cher- 
ish. For  every  sick  man  healed  at  Denver  or 
Lourdes,  ten  well  men  may  be  made  sick.  The 
faith  cure  and  the  patent  medicine  feed  on  the  same 
victim.  For  every  Schlatter  who  is  worshiped  as 
a  saint,  some  equally  harmless  lunatic  will  be  stoned 
as  a  witch.  This  scientific  age  is  beset  by  the  non- 
science  which  its  altruism  has  made  safe.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  common  sense  of  the  people  has 
given  security  to  a  vast  horde  of  follies,  which 
would  be  destroyed  in  the  unchecked  competition  of 
life.  It  is  the  soundness  of  our  age  which  has  made 
what  we  call  its  decadence  possible.  It  is  the  under- 
current of  science  which  has  given  security  to  human 
life,  a  security  which  obtains  for  fools  as  well  as  for 
sages. 

For  protection  against  all  these  follies  which  so 
quickly  fall  into  vices,  or  decay  into  insanity,  we 
must  look  to  the  schools.  A  sound  recognition  of 
cause  and  effect  in  human  affairs  is  our  best  safe- 
guard. The  old  common  sense  of  the  "  unhigh- 
schooled  man,"  aided  by  instruments  of  precision, 
and  directed  by  logic,  must  be  carried  over  into  the 
schools.  Clear  thinking  and  clean  acting,  we  be- 
lieve, are  results  of  the  study  of  nature.  When 
men  have  made  themselves  wise,  in  the  wisdom 


Reality  and  Education  159 

which  may  be  completed  in  action,  they  have  never 
failed  to  make  themselves  good.  When  men  have 
become  wise  with  the  lore  of  others,  the  learning 
which  ends  in  self,  a^id  does  not  spend  itself  in  ac- 
tion, they  have  been  neither  virtuous  nor  happy. 
"  Much  learning  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh." 
Thought  without  action  ends  in  intense  fatigue  of 
soul,  the  disgust  with  all  the  "  sorry  scheme  of 
things  entire,"  which  is  the  mark  of  the  unwhole- 
some philosophy  of  Pessimism.  This  philosophy 
finds  its  condemnation  in  the  fact  that  it  has 
never  yet  been  translated  into  pure  and  helpful 
life. 

With  our  children,  the  study  of  words  and  ab- 
stractions alone  may,  in  its  degree,  produce  the  same 
results.  Nature-studies  have  long  been  valued  as  a 
"  means  of  grace,"  because  they  arouse  the  enthusi- 
asm, the  love  of  work,  which  belongs  to  open-eyed 
youth.  The  child  bored  with  moral  precepts  and 
irregular  conjugations  turns  with  delight  to  the  un- 
rolling of  ferns  and  the  song  of  birds.  There  is  a 
moral  training  in  clearness  and  tangibility.  An  oc- 
cult impulse  to  vice  is  hidden  in  all  vagueness  and 
in  all  teaching  meant  to  be  heard,  but  not  to  be  un- 
derstood. Carelessness  in  knowledge  leads  to  care- 
lessness in  conduct.  Nature  is  never  obscure,  never 
occult,  never  esoteric.  She  must  be  questioned  in 
earnest,  else  she  will  not  reply.  But  to  every  seri- 
ous question  she  returns  a  serious  answer.  "  Sim- 
ple, natural,  and  true,"  should  make  the  impression 


160  Reality  and  Education 

of  simplicity  and  truth.  Truth  and  virtue  are  but 
opposite  sides  of  the  same  shield.  As  leaves 
pass  over  into  flowers  and  flowers  into  fruit,  so 
are  wisdom,  virtue,  and  happiness  inseparably 
related. 


VI 
REALITY  AND  TRADITION 

"  In  all  modern  history,  interference  with  science  in  the 
supposed  interest  of  religion,  no  matter  how  conscientious 
such  interference  may  have  been,  has  resulted  in  the  direst 
evils  to  religion  and  to  science,  and  invariably.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  all  untrammeled  scientific  investigation,  no  matter 
how  dangerous  to  religion  some  of  its  stages  may  have  seemed 
for  the  time,  has  invariably  resulted  in  the  highest  good  both 
of  religion  and  of  science." — ANDREW  DICKSON  WHITE. 

EACH  man  is  the  center  of  his  own  world.  In 
his  secret  heart  he  believes  himself  a  child  of 
luck.  If  his  affairs  go  persistently  to  the  bad,  he 
is,  in  his  own  estimation  at  least,  persecuted  by 
fortune.  He  is  always  in  his  own  foreground,  the 
object  of  special  favor  or  of  special  malice.  As 
each  individual  thus  feels  himself  the  object  of  at- 
tention from  mysterious  unseen  powers,  so  with  hu- 
man society.  In  all  the  ages,  men  have  found  a 
mystic  or  divine  warrant  for  their  collective  ac- 
tions, whatever  these  may  be.  On  this  warrant,  in- 
stitutions have  been  built  up.  Those  institutions 
that  survive  gather  to  themselves  an  ever-increas- 
ing authority.  This  is  a  divine  warrant  so  far  as 
it  goes.  For  all  such  authority  must,  in  the  main, 

161 


1 62  Reality  and  Tradition 

rest  on  man's  needs.  There  must  be  reality  in  these 
needs,  else  the  institutions  would  not  have  so  long 
persisted.  Thus,  should  every  fragment  of  the  his- 
toric churches  of  Christendom  disappear,  every 
memory,  every  ceremony,  every  trace  of  creed  or 
form,  the  church  would  rise  again,  renewed  as  to 
all  of  its  essentials.  Around  these  essentials  non- 
essentials  would  accumulate,  like  driftwood  on  a  lee 
shore.  With  each  variant  race  of  man,  there  would 
be  a  corresponding  variation  in  the  external  features 
of  the  church. 

Monarchy,  in  turn,  exists  by  the  same  divine 
right.  It  is  workable  in  a  degree,  and  thus  it  per- 
sists. By  the  same  divine  right  it  is  claimed  that 
the  wheelbarrow  also  persists.  This  is  also  work- 
able in  its  degree  and  for  its  own  purpose.  When 
monarchy  fails,  the  same  divinity  that  hedged  the 
king  sustains  the  rights  of  the  people.  The  king 
was  God's  anointed,  so  long  as  the  people  were  con- 
tent. But  when  "  God  said,  *  I  am  tired  of  kings,  I 
suffer  them  no  more,'  "  the  self-rule  of  the  people 
acquired  the  same  divine  right.  The  power  belongs 
to  whoever  can  use  it.  We  know  God's  purposes 
only  by  what  he  permits.  That  which  exists  as  if 
in  the  nature  of  things,  that  which  proclaims  itself 
as  powerful,  men  have  worshiped  as  divine.  This 
is  especially  true  if  origin  and  relations  have  been 
dimly  understood.  The  force  felt  in  the  darkness 
has  been  the  fittest  object  of  worship.  To  worship 
a  god  built  visibly  of  a  block  of  wood  has  never  ap- 


Reality  and  Tradition  163 

pealed  to  strong  men.     It  is  the  hidden  force  in- 
visible, even  in  stone,  before  which  men  bow. 

It  has  been  plain  to  man  in  all  ages  that  he  is  sur- 
rounded by  forces  stronger  than  himself,  invisible 
and  intangible,  inscrutable  in  their  real  nature,  but 
terribly  potent  to  produce  results.  As  the  human 
will  seems  capricious  because  the  springs  of  voli- 
tion are  hidden  from  observation,  so  to  the  unknown 
will  that  limits  our  own  we  ascribe  an  infinite 
caprice.  All  races  of  men  capable  of  abstract 
thought  have  believed  in  the  existence  of  something 
outside  themselves  whose  power  is  without  human 
limitations.  Through  the  imagination  of  poets  the 
forces  of  nature  become  personified.  In  primitive 
logic  the  existence  of  power  demands  corresponding 
will.  The  power  is  infinitely  greater  than  ours;  the 
sources  of  its  action  inscrutable;  hence  man  has 
conceived  the  unknown  first  cause  as  an  infinite  and 
unconditioned  man.  Anthropomorphism  in  some 
degree  is  inevitable,  because  each  man  must  think 
in  terms  of  his  own  experience.  Into  his  own  per- 
sonal universe,  all  that  he  knows  must  come.  Recog- 
nition of  the  hidden  but  gigantic  forces  in  nature 
leads  men  to  fear  and  to  worship  them.  To  think 
of  them  either  in  fear  or  in  worship  is  to  give  them 
human  forms.  About  the  perceptions  of  things 
formed  in  his  own  brain,  each  man  builds  up  his 
own  subjective  or  self-centered  universe.  Each  ac- 
cretion of  knowledge  must  be  cast  more  or  less  di- 
rectly in  terms  of  previous  experience.  By  proc- 


164  Reality  and  Tradition 

esses  of  suggestion  and  conventionality  the  ideas 
of  the  individual  become  assimilated  to  those  of  the 
multitude.  Men  are  gregarious  creatures,  and  their 
speech  gives  them  the  power  to  add  to  their  own  in- 
dividual experiences  the  concepts  and  experiences  of 
others.  Suggestion  and  conventionality  play  a 
large  part  in  the  mental  equipment  of  the  individual 
man.  Thus  myths  arise  to  account  for  phenom- 
ena not  clearly  within  the  ordinary  experiences  of 
life.  And  in  all  mythology  the  unknown  is  ascribed 
not  to  natural  forces,  but  to  the  quasi-personal  ac- 
tion of  powers  that  transcend  nature,  powers  that 
lie  outside  the  domain  of  the  familiar  and  the  real. 
Primitive  man  finds  this  interpretation  satisfac- 
tory, and  he  holds  it  as  true.  Cause  and  effect  for 
him  are  conceptions  of  vaguely  personal  influence 
and  personal  response.  His  interests,  his  under- 
takings, his  imaginings,  and  hopes,  slowly  and  un- 
certainly develop  to  a  form  and  magnitude  which 
these  conceptions  cannot  manage.  When  man  can 
no  longer  accept  the  answers  which  the  use  of  these 
conceptions  brings  the  age  of  science  has  set  in.  It 
is  the  mission  of  science — so  far  as  it  goes — to 
place  man  in  more  and  more  satisfactory  working 
relations  with  the  real  nature  of  the  universe.  By 
methods  of  precision  of  thought  and  by  instruments 
of  precision  of  observation  and  experiment,  science 
seeks  to  make  our  knowledge  of  the  small,  the 
distant,  the  invisible,  the  mysterious,  the  mighty,  as 
accurate,  as  practical,  as  our  knowledge  of  common 


Reality  and  Tradition  165 

things.  Moreover,  it  seeks  to  make  our  knowledge 
of  common  things  also  accurate  and  precise,  that 
this  accuracy  and  precision  may  be  translated  into 
more  effective  action.  For  the  ultimate  end  of  sci- 
ence as  well  as  its  initial  impulse  is  the  regulation 
of  human  conduct.  Seeing  true  means  thinking 
right.  Right  thinking  means  right  action.  Greater 
precision  in  action  makes  higher  civilization  pos- 
sible. 

But  the  progress  of  science  is  slow.  It  must  over- 
come powerful  resistance.  The  social  instincts  of 
primitive  man  tend  to  crystallize  in  institutions  even 
his  common  hopes  and  fears.  An  institution  im- 
plies a  division  of  labor.  Hence,  in  each  age  and  in 
each  race  men  have  set  apart  certain  of  their  fel- 
lows as  representatives  of  these  hidden  forces,  de- 
voted them  to  the  propitiation  of  these  forces. 
These  men  are  thus  commissioned  to  speak  in  the 
name  of  each  god  that  the  people  worship,  or  of 
each  demon  the  people  dread.  The  existence  of 
each  cult  of  priests  is  bound  up  in  the  perpetuation 
of  the  mysteries  and  traditions  assigned  to  its  care. 
These  traditions  are  linked  with  other  traditions 
and  with  other  mystic  explanations  of  uncompre- 
hended  phenomena.  While  human  theories  of  the 
sun,  the  stars,  the  clouds,  of  earthquakes,  storms, 
comets,  and  disease,  have  no  direct  relation  to  the 
feeling  of  worship,  they  cannot  be  disentangled  from 
it.  The  uncomprehended,  the  unfamiliar,  and  the 
supernatural  are  one  and  the  same  in  the  untrained 


1 66  Reality  and  Tradition 

human  mind;  and  one  set  of  prejudices  cannot  be 
dissociated  from  the  others. 

To  the  ideas  acquired  in  youth  we  attach  a  sort 
of  sacredness.  For  the  course  of  action  we  follow 
we  are  prone  to  claim  some  kind  of  mystic  sanction ; 
and  this  mystic  sanction  applies  not  only  to  acts 
of  virtue  and  devotion,  but  to  the  most  unimportant 
rites  and  ceremonies.  In  theje  we  resent  changes 
with  the  full  force  of  such  conservatism  as  we  pos- 
sess. New  ideas,  without  the  sanction  of  tradition, 
whatever  the  nature  of  their  source,  must  struggle 
for  acceptance.  To  the  scientific  notions  of  our 
childhood  we  cling  with  special  persistence,  because 
they  are  associated  with  our  conception  of  right 
doing  and  of  the  motives  which  control  it.  Both 
are  part  of  the  mental  universe  we  built  around  us 
in  our  youth,  and  one  in  which  we  would  not  will- 
ingly make  changes  or  extensions.  Much  that  we 
have  called  religion  is  merely  the  debris  of  our 
grandfather's  science. 

In  history  the  struggle  of  knowledge  drawn  from 
present  and  significant  realities,  against  tradition 
and  prejudice  drawn  from  past  realities,  has  as- 
sumed the  form  of  a  war  of  science  with  religion. 
Not  that  religion  is  bound  up  in  the  preservation  of 
error,  but  that  men  have  bolstered  up  their  tradi- 
tional opinions  with  the  consensus  of  society,  and 
this  fact  has  appeared  as  a  religious  sanction.  Thus 
the  history  of  the  progress  of  knowledge  has  been 
a  record  of  physical  resistance  of  organized  society 


Reality  and  Tradition  167 

to  new  ideas  drawn  from  the  deeper  experience  and 
the  bolder  aspiration  of  men.  "  By  the  light  of 
burning  heretics  Christ's  bleeding  feet  I  track."  He 
who  sees  that  the  world  does  move  is  burned  at 
the  stake,  that  other  men  may  be  convinced  of  the 
earth's  stability.  He  who  is  sure  that  granite  rock 
was  once  melted  finds  social  pressure  against  him 
when  he  would  make  known  the  results  of  his  ob- 
servations. He  who  would  give  the  sacred  books 
of  our  civilization  the  faithful  scrutiny  their  vast 
importance  deserves,  finds  the  doors  of  libraries  and 
universities  closed  to  his  research.  He  who  has 
seen  the  relation  of  man  to  his  brother  animals,  finds 
the  air  filled  with  the  vain  chatter  of  those  to  whom 
whatever  is  natural  seems  only  profane.  "  Extin- 
guished theologians,"  Huxley  tells  us,  "  lie  about 
the  cradle  of  every  science  as  the  strangled  snakes 
beside  that  of  the  infant  Hercules." 

But  this,  again,  is  not  the  whole  story.  All  these 
are  only  incidents  natural  to  human  development. 
Not  only  theologians  lie  strangled  about  the  cradle 
of  the  infant  giant,  but  learned  men  of  all  classes 
and  conditions.  Learning  and  wisdom  are  not 
identical;  they  are  not  always  on  speaking  terms. 
Learning  looks  backward  to  the  past.  The  word 
"  learn "  involves  the  existence  of  some  man  as 
teacher.  Wisdom  looks  forward  to  the  future.  In 
so  far  as  science  is  genuine,  it  is  of  the  nature  of 
wisdom.  "  To  come  in  when  it  rains  "  is  the  be- 
ginning of  the  science  of  meteorology.  "  The  soul 


1 68  Reality  and  Tradition 

that  sinneth,  it  shall  die,"  is  the  practical  basis  of  the 
science  of  personal  ethics.  To  be  wise  is  to  be  ready 
to  act ;  but  learning  as  such  in  all  the  ages  has  con- 
demned wisdom  and  despised  action. 

The  development  of  all  science  has  been  a  con- 
stant struggle,  a  struggle  of  reality  against  super- 
stition, of  instant  impressions  against  traditional  in- 
terpretations, of  truth  against  "  make-believe,"  of 
investigation  against  opinion.  Investigation  once 
enthroned  as  science  must  meet  again  insurgent 
opinion,  and  the  recrudescence  of  ancient  folly. 
For  men  are  prone  to  trust  a  theory  rather  than  a 
fact;  a  fact  is  a  single  point  of  contact;  a  theory 
or  a  tradition  is  a  circle  made  of  an  infinite  number 
of  points,  none  of  them,  however,  it  may  be,  real  or 
permanently  significant. 

The  warfare  of  science  is,  however,  not  primarily, 
as  Draper  has  called  it,  a  conflict  with  religion,  nor 
even,  as  President  White  would  have  it,  a  struggle 
with  "  dogmatic  theology."  It  is  all  of  these,  but 
it  is  more  than  these — a  conflict  of  tendencies  in  the 
human  mind  which  has  worked  itself  out  into  his- 
tory. The  great  crises  of  history  in  general  are 
rehearsed  in  the  minds  of  men  before  they  appear  on 
the  stage  of  the  world.  This  issue  is  settled  in  psy- 
chology before  it  appears  in  history.  In  the  affairs 
of  life  most  of  us,  of  necessity,  perform  deeds  and 
recite  sentences  "  written  for  us  generations  before 
we  were  born."  "  He  hath  his  exits  and  his  en- 
trances." He  is  a  rare  man  who  can  add  a  new 


Reality  and  Tradition  169 

meaning  to  his  lines  or  give  a  better  one  to  him  that 
follows.  For  it  may  take  a  lifetime  of  the  severest 
labor  to  find  out  a  new  fact.  No  truth  comes  to 
man  unless  he  asks  for  it.  It  needs  years  of  pa- 
tience and  devotion  to  ask  a  genuinely  and  radically 
new  question.  He  is  already  a  master  in  science 
who  can  suggest  a  new  experiment.  The  history 
of  the  progress  of  science  is  written  in  human  psy- 
chology before  it  appears  in  human  records.  In  the 
mind  of  the  discoverer  and  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  antagonize  his  discovery,  the  strife  is  on.  It  is 
the  struggle  of  the  few  realities  or  present  sense- 
impressions  against  the  multitude  of  past  im- 
pressions, with  their  suggestions  and  explanations. 
The  struggle  between  science  and  theology  has  re- 
sulted only  because  theological  misconceptions  were 
entangled  with  crude  notions  of  other  sorts.  In 
the  experience  of  a  single  human  life  there  is  little  to 
correct  even  the  crudest  of  theological  conceptions. 
From  the  supposed  greater  importance  of  religious 
opinions  in  determining  the  fate  of  men  and  nations, 
theological  ideas  have  dominated  all  others  through- 
out the  ages.  Therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
the  great  religious  bodies  have  formed  the  strong- 
hold of  conservatism  against  which  the  separated 
bands  of  science  have  hurled  themselves,  long  seem- 
ingly in  vain. 

From  some  phase  of  the  "  warfare  of  science  " 
no  individual  is  exempt.  In  some  one  line,  at  least, 
every  lofty  mind  throughout  the  ages  has  demanded 


170  Reality  and  Tradition 

access  to  the  freedom  of  objective  reality,  the  right 
to  question  in  his  own  way  the  empirical  world  of 
individual  real  things.  More  and  more  through 
the  ages,  men  in  our  day  have  learned  to  trust  a 
present  fact,  or  group  of  facts,  however  contradic- 
tory its  teachings,  as  opposed  to  tradition  and 
opinion.  From  this  increasing  trust,  keeping  pace 
with  the  development  of  men's  practical  needs  and 
theoretical  interests,  the  great  fabric  of  modern  sci- 
ence has  been  built  up.  There  is  no  better  antidote 
to  bigotry  than  the  study  of  the  growth  of  knowl- 
edge. There  is  no  chapter  in  history  more  encour- 
aging than  that  which  treats  of  the  growth  of  open- 
mindedness.  The  study  of  this  history  leads  re- 
ligious men  to  shun  intolerance  in  the  present, 
through  a  knowledge  of  the  evils  intolerance  has 
wrought  in  the  past.  Men  of  science  are  spurred 
to  more  earnest  work  by  the  record  that  through  the 
ages  objective  truth  has  been  the  final  test  of  all 
theories  and  conceptions.  All  men  will  work  more 
sanely  and  more  effectively  as  they  realize  that  no 
good  to  religion  or  science  comes  from  trying  "  to 
please  God  with  a  lie." 

The  progress  of  science  has  been  a  struggle  of 
thinkers,  observers,  and  experimenters  against  the 
dominant  forces  of  society.  It  has  been  a  con- 
tinuous battle,  in  which  the  side  that  seems  weakest 
is,  in  the  long  run,  winner,  having  the  strength  of 
the  universe  behind.  It  has  been  incidentally  a  con- 
flict of  earth-born  knowledge  with  opinions  of  men 


Reality  and  Tradition  171 

sanctioned  by  religion;  of  present  fact  with  pre- 
established  system;  visibly  a  warfare  between  in- 
ductive thought  and  dogmatic  theology.  But  the 
real  struggle  lies  deeper  than  this.  It  is  the  ef- 
fort of  the  human  mind  to  relate  itself  to  realities 
in  the  midst  of  traditions  and  superstitions,  to 
realize  that  Nature  never  contradict?  herself,  is  al- 
ways complex,  but  never  mysterious.  As  a  final 
result  all  past  systems  of  philosophy,  if  not  all  pos- 
sible systems,  have  been  thrown  back  into  the  realm 
of  literature,  of  poetry.  They  can  no  longer  dog- 
matically control  the  life  of  action,  each  forward 
step  of  which  must  take  its  departure  from  present 
aim  and  present  fact.  In  the  warfare  of  tradition 
against  science  the  real  and  timely  in  act  and  mo- 
tive has  striven  to  replace  the  unreal  and  the  ob- 
solete. Men  have  very  slowly  learned  that  the  true 
glory  of  life  lies  in  its  wise  conduct,  in  the  daily 
act  of  love  and  helpfulness,  not  in  the  vagaries 
fostered  by  the  priest  nor  in  the  spasms  of  madness 
which  are  the  pride  of  the  spirit  of  war.  To  live 
here  and  now  as  a  man  should  live  constitutes  the 
ethics  of  science.  This  ideal  has  been  in  constant 
antithesis  to  the  ethics  of  ecclesiasticism,  of  ascet- 
icism, and  of  militarism,  as  well  as  to  the  fancies  of 
the  various  groups  of  "  intellectual  malcontents  to 
whom  the  progress  of  science  seems  slow  and 
laborious." 

Science  is  human  experience  of  contact  with  real 
things  tested,  set  in  order,  and  expressed  in  terms 


172  Reality  and  Tradition 

of  other  human  experience.  Utilitarian  science  is 
that  part  of  knowledge  a  man  can  use  in  the  affairs 
of  life.  What  is  pure  science  to  one  may  be  ap- 
plied science  to  another.  The  investigation  of  the 
laws  of  heredity  may  be  strictly  academic  to  us  of 
the  university,  but  they  are  rigidly  utilitarian  as  re- 
lated to  the  preservation  of  the  nation  or  to  the 
breeding  of  pigs. 

Pure  science  and  utilitarian  science  merge  into 
each  other  at  every  point.  They  are  one  and  the 
same  thing  in  logical  framework  and  in  basal  con- 
ceptions. Every  new  truth  can  be  used  to  enlarge 
human  power  or  to  alleviate  human  suffering.  There 
is  no  fact  so  remote  as  to  have  no  possible  bearing 
on  human  utility.  Applied  science  is  pure  science 
before  it  is  applied.  Pure  science  is  pure  not  in  an 
impossible  transcendence  of  all  application,  but  in 
its  impartial  availability  for  any  desired  application. 
To  apply  science  to  human  needs  is  to  utilize  it  as 
well  as  to  lend  it  verification.  Every  new  truth  of 
science  may  fall  into  the  grasp  of  that  higher  philan- 
thropy which  considers  the  highest  as  well  as  the 
lowest  in  the  well-being  of  man.  Science  is  the 
flower  of  human  altruism.  No  worker  in  science 
can  stand  alone.  None  counts  for  much  who  tries 
to  do  so.  He  must  enter  into  the  work  of  others. 
He  must  fit  his  thought  to  theirs.  He  must  stand 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  past,  if  he  is  to  look  far  into 
the  future.  The  past  has  granted  its  assistance  to 
the  fullest  degree  of  the  most  perfect  altruism.  The 


Reality  and  Tradition  173 

future  will  not  refuse  its  own  co-operation,  and,  in 
return,  whatever  knowledge  it  can  take  for  human 
uses,  it  will  choose  in  untrammeled  freedom.  The 
sole  line  which  sets  off  utilitarian  science  lies  in  the 
limitation  of  human  strength  and  of  human  life. 
The  single  life  must  be  given  to  a  narrow  field,  to  a 
single  strand  of  truth,  following  it  wherever  it  may 
lead.  Some  must  teach,  some  must  investigate, 
some  must  adapt  to  human  uses.  It  is  not  often 
that  these  functions  can  be  united  in  the  same  in- 
dividual. It  is  not  necessary  that  they  should  be 
united;  for  art  is  long,  though  life  is  short,  and 
time  is  fleeting. 

I  have  said  before  that  in  matters  not  presently 
vital  to  action,  the  exactness  and  pertinence  of 
knowledge  loses  its  importance.  Any  tradition,  as 
any  other  kind  of  belief,  may  be  safe,  if  we  do  not 
place  upon  it  the  weight  of  action.  It  is  perfectly 
safe,  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  for  one  who 
does  not  propose  to  trust  himself  to  his  convictions 
to  believe  in  witches  and  lucky  stones,  imps  and 
elves,  astral  bodies  and  odic  forces.  Thus,  also,  one 
may  believe  in  the  right  of  the  present  heir  of  the 
Stuarts  to  the  throne  of  England.  He  may  believe 
in  Feudalism,  in  the  patristic  miracles  or  in  the 
apotheosis  of  Roman  Emperors.  It  is  quite  as 
consistent  with  ordinary  living  to  accept  these  as 
objective  realities  as  it  is  to  have  the  vague  faith 
in  microbes  and  molecules,  mahatmas  and  proto- 
plasm, protective  tariffs  and  manifest  destiny,  which 


174  Reality  and  Tradition 

forms  part  of  the  mental  outfit  of  the  average  Amer- 
ican citizen  of  to-day.  Unless  these  conceptions 
are  to  be  brought  into  terms  of  personal  experience, 
unless  in  some  degree  we  are  to  trust  our  lives  to 
them,  unless  they  are  to  be  wrought  into  action,  they 
are  irrelevant  to  the  conduct  of  life.  Unless  in 
some  way  we  propose  to  act  upon  them,  we  are  not 
really  holding  them  as  articles  of  faith.  When  they 
are  tested  by  action,  the  truth  in  tradition,  as  in 
other  conception,  is  separated  from  the  falsehood, 
and  the  error  involved  in  antiquated  or  vague 
or  silly  ideas  becomes  manifest.  As  one  comes  to 
handle  microbes,  they  become  as  real  as  bullets  or 
oranges,  and  as  susceptible  of  being  known  or 
measured  or  photographed.  Thus  one  may  test  and 
prove  the  truth  of  the  lesson  of  the  Book  of  Job, 
that  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  that  of  the  law  of 
eminent  domain.  But  the  astral  body  touches  no 
reality,  and  ghosts  vanish  before  the  electric  light. 
"  The  world  as  it  is,"  or,  rather,  the  world  as  it  is 
to  us,  is  the  province  of  science.  "  The  God  of  the 
things  as  they  are  "  is  the  God  of  the  highest  heaven. 
"Of  the  things  as  they  are "  to  us,  we  mean, 
for  we  can  know  no  other  things,  nor  any  things  in 
any  other  way.  And  as,  to  the  sane  man,  the  world, 
as  it  is,  is  glorious,  beautiful,  harmonious,  and  di- 
vine, so  will  science  more  and  more  rise  to  be  the 
inspiration  of  art,  of  poetry,  and  of  religion.  We 
stand  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  century;  a  century 
of  science;  a  century  whose  discoveries  of  reality 


Reality  and  Tradition  175 

shall  far  outweigh  those  of  all  centuries  which  have 
preceded  it;  a  century  whose  glories  even  the  most 
conservative  of  scientific  men  dare  not  try  to  fore- 
cast. And  this  twentieth  century  is  but  one — the 
least,  most  likely — of  the  many  centuries  crowding 
to  take  their  place  in  the  development  of  human 
knowledge.  Each  century  will  behold  a  great 
increase  of  precision  in  each  branch  of  human 
knowledge,  a  great  widening  of  the  horizon  of 
human  thought,  a  great  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tions of  human  life,  as  enlightened  purpose,  intelli- 
gence, and  precision  rise  to  be  more  and  more  con- 
trolling factors  in  human  action. 

The  truth  we  need  is  the  truth  we  can  use  in  our 
affairs.  The  life  of  action  verifies  and  validates 
the  world  of  realities.  For  "  we  are  men  "  after 
all,  says  Fonsegrive,  "  and  not  gods.  We  know  the 
whole  of  nothing,  but  we  know  something.  'Tis 
but  little  no  doubt,  but  this  little  suffices  for  our 
purposes." 


INDEX 


Absolute  truth,  8 

Acceptability  not  an  index  of 
truth,  u 

Acquired  characters,  87;  in- 
heritance of,  81 

Adaptation,  47 

Agassiz,  114,   136 

Albinus,  on  the  divining  rod, 
140 

Alchemy,  129 

Anthropomorphism,  163 

Applied  science,  172 

Articles  of  Monistic  Faith,  73 

Atmospheria,  lords  of,  113 

Attention,    149 

Authority,  161 

Bacon,  on  votive  offerings, 
120 

Balfour,  on  belief,  36;  on 
claims  of  senses,  26;  on 
doubt,  35 ;  on  life  in  a 
dimly  lighted  room,  28;  on 
"  the  sun  gives  light,"  30 

Belief,  42,  43 ;  and  make- 
believe,  86;  in  unverifiable 
hypotheses,  85 

Bergson,  on  Creative  Evolu- 
tion, 47 ;  on  the  Intellect,  44 

Bierce,    on    snake    charming, 

99 

Blood,    on    wildness    of    the 

universe,  70 
Borderland  of  spirit,  37 
Boundary  Fisheries,  17 
Bradley,  on  the  universe,  69 
Brooks,  on  Vitalism,  73 
B rough,  on  the  divining  rod, 

140 


Bryan,   on  truth   in   cerebral 

psychology,  92 
Burbank,  and  plant  creation, 

107 

Carbon,  maker  of  Life,  74 

Cause  and  effect,  60 

Cheerfulness,  makes  for 
health,  120 

Chemism,  75 

Chesterton,  on  Creeds,  43 

Circumstance  as  a  Strong 
God,  39 

Colburn,  on  rival  philoso- 
phies, 89 

Comet  shriek,  104 

Common  Sense,  60 

Conduct  of  Life,  61 

Cordilleras,  section  of,  41 

Creeds,  42 

Cures  at  Lourdes,  124 

Cuvier,   114 

Darwin,    on    circumnutation, 

49 
Death,  result  of  disobedience, 

52 

Decadence  made  safe  by  sci- 
ence, 158 

Delusion,  5,  98 

Democracy,  a  laboratory  of 
citizenship,  156 

Denver,  saint  of,  118 

Desmarest  on  volcanic  action, 
88 

Ding  an  sich,  5,  29 

Disease,  meaning  of,  118 

Divine  right,  162 

Divining  rods,  101,  141,  142 


177 


178 


Index 


Dominion,  roots  of,  155 
Dramatic  tone  in  science,  42 
Draper,   on   warfare   of   sci- 
ence, 168 

Dream  pictures,  20 
Dresslar,    on     rabbit's     foot, 
133;    on    superstition,    134, 

135 
Driesch,  on  vital  force,  74 

Emerson,  on  law,  134;  on  pre- 
tense of  belief,  80;  on  short 
cuts  to  truth,  88 
Equal  Access,  law  of,  114 
Etolin   and   the   red   salmon, 

109 

Evolution,  orderly  change,  47 
Evolutionary  unity  of  chem- 
ical elements,  76 
Evolutionary    unity    of    Life, 
76,78 

Fall  of  Leaf,  72 

Falsehood  kills,  21 

Ferguson,  on  justice  of  uni- 
verse, 69 

Flagellantes,   121 

Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
4i 

Fonsegrive,  on  limits  of 
knowledge,  3 ;  on  men  who 
are  not  gods,  175 

Force  unconditioned,  in 

Foreordination,  71 

Fouillee,  on  universe  as  a 
broken  mirror,  71 

Foundations  of  belief,  36 

Franklin,  on  Methusalem,  129 

Franklin,  W.  S.,  on  meaning 
of  Physics,  34 

Galton,   87 

Gaseous  Vertebrate,  belief  in, 

36 

Germs  of  truth,  22 
Giard,  on  indirect  approaches 

to  knowledge,  65 
Gladstone,  on  belief,  86 
Goblins,  non-existence  of,  3 


God,    goodness    and    severity 

of,  41 
God  of  things  as  they  are,  175 

Haeckel,  on  articles  of  faith, 
86;  on  carbon,  74;  as  dog- 
matist, 90;  on  the  gaseous 
vertebrate,  36;  on  Monism, 
72 
Havens,  on  unconditioned 

force,  no 

Hegel,  on  Monism,  66 
Hermanos  Penitentes,  121 
History    repeating    itself,  al- 
most, never  quite,  71 
Homoousion     or     Homoiou- 

sion,  84 

Hooson,  on  divining  rod,  140 
Huxley,    86;    on    the    Infant 
Hercules,  167;  on  truth,  96 
Hyperaesthesia,  57 

Ibsen,  on  longevity  of  truth, 

96 

Idol,  magic  power  of,  113 
Illusion,  5,  98 
Illusions  of  brandy,  99 
Impulses  point  backward,   53 
Innate  Ideas,  27 
Intelligence  unlimited,  40 
Irritability,  49 

Jackman,  on  moral  training, 
157 

James,  on  Greek  Ideal  in 
Philosophy,  65 ;  on  truth, 
97;  on  the  Purpose  of  the 
Absolute,  69;  on  Rational 
Unity,  67 ;  on  sharpness  of 
ideas,  95 ;  on  True  ideas, 
25 ;  on  the  unfinished  Uni- 
verse, 67;  on  unreal  belief, 
82,  83 

Jesus,  religion  of,  50 

John's  John,  31 

Josh  Billings,  on  untrue 
knowledge,  95 

Judge,  on  illusions  of  mat- 
ter, 122 


Index 


179 


Kant,  on  Monism,  66 
Kelvin,  on  size  of  molecules, 

80 
Knowledge,  as  power,  19;  as 

weariness,  55 

Latent  Oxygen,  141 
Learning     looks     backward, 

167 

Life  in  inert  matter,  132 
Lineage  relatively  good,  55 
Livableness,  test  of  truth,  4, 

II,   12 

Logical  necessity,  88 
Lombroso,  on  Paladino,  125 
Lourdes,   123 
Luther,  on  innate  ideas,  27 

Make-believe  and  belief,  86 
Man,   an   alliance   of   zooids, 

32;   a   shifting  alliance   of 

cells,  32 

Mares,   on   Lourdes,   123 
Matter    and    force    identical, 

75 

Matter  and  mind,   122 
Mechanism,  73 
Medicine  men,   128 
Memory,  148 

Mesmer,  on  magnetism,  128 
Methusalem,  his  fondness  for 

pure  air,   129 
Mind  and  matter,   122 
Mind  controlling  matter,   107 
Minot,  on  scientific  medicine, 

135 

Monarchy,   162 
Monism,  65,  66 
Moral  training,  150 
Mormonism,   50 
Motion  of  trains,  09 
Mystic  sanctions,  161,  166 
Mythology,    163 

Natural   selection,  47 
Nature  study,  143,  159 
Nervous    system,     146;    and 

locomotion,  7 
Nihil  nemini  nocet,  84 


Oahspe,  113 

Obedience,  as  adaptation,  52 

Objective  impressions,  5 

Objective    truth,    97 

Odin   and  the  golden   mead, 

107 
Organisms  as  links  in  chain 

of  life,  52 
Orientation,  151 
Ostwald,  on  results  of  belief, 

82,  83 

Pain  a  signal,  61 
Paladino,  Eusapia,  125 
Pantheism,  85 
Parasilenic   Telegraph,   105 
Parkhurst,   on   the   world   as 

an  university,  157 
Partial  knowledge  true  so  far 

as  it  goes,  10 

Peirce,  on  belief,  95 ;  on  elu- 
sive ideas,  95 
Pessimism,  51 
Philosophic  doubt,  35,  60 
Philosophy,   purpose    of,   42, 

45 

Planets,  course  of,  10,  103 
Plants  as  sessile  animals,  49 
Pluralism,   82 
Poverty,  abolition  of,  117 
Practicality  of  senses,  57 
Pretending  to  know,  62 
Progressive  evolution,  8l 
Pure  science,  172 

Rabbit's  foot  as  a  charm,  132 

Rainmaking,  in 

Rational  unity  of  all  things, 

67 
Raymond,   on    divining    rod, 

140 

Realities  adequate  to  needs,  7 
Reality,  and  the  Conduct  of 
Life,  47;  and  education, 
143 ;  and  illusion,  95 ;  its 
meaning,  5 ;  and  Monism, 
65;  objective  origin,  38; 
and  science,  3;  subjective 
element  in,  38;  to  be  over- 


i8o 


Index 


come,  not  dodged,  120;  and 
tradition,  161 

Reason,  a  choice  among  re- 
sponses, 30;  its  limits,  29 

Recrudescence  of  supersti- 
tion, 56 

Red  Salmon,  run  of,  109 

Reincarnation,   12,   130 

Religion  holding  to  debris  of 
science,  166 

Riley,  on  goblins,  3 

Ritter,  on  non-science,  92 

Rontgen  rays,  125 

Roses  and  poppies;  their 
color,  29 

Royce,  on  the  Universe,  69 

Science,  her  cast-off  impedi- 
menta, 93 ;  and  non-science, 
135 ;  stops  where  facts 
stop,  91 ;  tests  of,  137 

Scientific  induction,  137 

Scientific  methods,  138 

Sensation  and  action,  48 

Senses,  practicality  of,  147 

Shelley,  on   Life,   143 

Silva,  Madame  de,  magic 
powers  of,  114 

Sizing  up  situation,  16 

Snake  charming,  99 

Spectroscope,  83 

Spencer,  on  Monism,  66 

Spontaneous  Generation,  74, 
78 

Stuart,  on  hidden  conditions, 
28;  on  Monism,  66 

Subjective  dangers  harmless, 
61 

Subjective  impressions,  5 

Suburban  booms,  112 

Sun,  eclipse  of,  100 

Supreme  Being  feeling  his 
way,  71 

Swinburne,  lack  of  belief,  43 

Symbolism  of  Eucharist,  84 


Taine,  on  Activity  of  Parisi- 
ans, 98 

Teacups,  Sciosophy  of,  36 

Telepathy,  105 

Tradition,  165 

Transmutation  of  metals,  77 

Treasures  buried,  101 

Tropism,  48 

Truth,  its  final  test,  4;  its 
meaning,  96;  shown  by  ef- 
fective action,  17;  state- 
ment of,  6;  tested  by 
safety,  59;  and  virtue  re- 
lated, 160 

Undigested  words,  154 
Universe    as   a   "going  con- 
cern," 70;   as  unreturning, 
71 
Universe,  its  vastness,  13 

Venus,  transit  of,  100 

Veracity  of  thought  and  ac- 
tion, 54 

Virtue,  24 

Vital  force,  33 

Vitalism,  73 

Voltaire,  on  Divination,  141 ; 
on  divining  the  future,  71 

Votive  offerings,  120 

Wallace,  on  evolution  of 
mind,  89 

Warfare  of  reality  against 
tradition,  166 

Warfare  of  science,  169 

Weismann,  87 

White,  A.  D.,  on  interfer- 
ence with  science,  161 ;  on 
warfare  of  science,  168 

White,  W.  A.,  70 

Wisdom,  24;  looks  forward, 
167 

Wong  Chang,  magic  power 
of,  114 


THE  AMERICAN  NATURE  SERIES 

In  the  hope  of  doing  something  toward  furnishing  a  series  where 
the  nature-lover  can  surely  find  a  readable  book  of  high  authority, 
the  publishers  of  the  American  Science  Series  have  begun  the  publi- 
cation of  the  American  Nature  Series.  It  is  the  intention  that  in  its 
own  way,  the  new  series  shall  stand  on  a  par  with  its  famous  prede- 
cessor. 

The  primary  object  of  the  new  series  is  to  answer  questions 
which  the  contemplation  of  Nature  is  constantly  arousing  in  the 
mind  of  the  unscientific  intelligent  person.  But  a  collateral  object 
will  be  to  give  some  intelligent  notion  of  the  "causes  of  things." 

While  the  cooperation  of  foreign  scholars  will  not  be  declined, 
the  books  will  be  under  the  guarantee  of  American  experts,  and  gen- 
erally from  the  American  point  of  view;  and  where  material  crowds 
space,  preference  will  be  given  to  American  facts  over  others  of  not 
more  than  equal  interest. 

The  series  will  be  in  six  divisions  : 

I.    NATURAL  HISTORY 

This  division  will  consist  of  two  sections. 

Section  A.  A  large  popular  Natural  History  in  several  vol- 
umes, with  the  topics  treated  in  due  proportion,  by  authors  of  un- 
questioned authority.  8vo,  7^x10^  in. 

The  books  sofarpublisht  in  this  section  are: 

FISHES,  by  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  President  of  the  Leland  Stanford 
Junior  University.  $6.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

AMERICAN  INSECTS,  by  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG,  Professor  in  the 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  University.  $5.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

BIRDS  OF  THE  WORLD.  A  popular  account  by  FRANK  H. 
KNOWLTON,  M.S.,  Ph.D.,  Member  American  Ornithologists 
Union,  President  Biological  Society  of  Washington,  etc.,  etc., 
with  Chapter  on  Anatomy  of  Birds  by  FREDERIC  A.  LUCAS, 
Chief  Curator  Brooklyn  Museum  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  edited 
by  ROBERT  RIDGWAY,  Curator  of  Birds,  U.  S.  National  Museum. 
$7.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

Arranged  for  are: 

SEEDLESS  PLANTS,  by  GEORGE  T.  MOORE,  Head  of  Department 
of  Botany,  Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  assisted  by  other  spe- 
cialists. 

WILD  MAMMALS  OF  NORTH  AMERICA,  by  C.  HART  MER- 
RIAM,  Chief  of  the  United  States  Biological  Survey. 

REPTILES  AND  BATRACHIANS,  by  LEOVHARD  STEJNEOER, 
Curator  of  Reptiles,  U.  S.  National  Museum. 


AMERICAN    NATURE    SERIES      (Continued) 

I.     NATURAL   HISTORY  (Continued) 

Section  B.  A  Shorter  Natural  History,  mainly  by  the  Authors 
of  Section  A,  preserving  its  popular  character,  its  proportional  treat- 
ment, and  its  authority  so  far  as  that  can  be  preserved  without  its 
fullness.  Size  not  yet  determined. 

II.    CLASSIFICATION  OF  NATURE 

1.  Library  Series,  very  full  descriptions.     8vo.     T^xlOj  in. 

Already  publisht: 

NORTH  AMERICAN  TREES,  by  N.  L.  BRITTON,  Director  of  the 
New  York  Botanical  Garden.  $7.00  net;  carriage  extra. 

FERNS,  by  CAMPBELL  E.  WATERS,  of  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
$3.00  net;  by  mail,  §3.30. 

2.  Pocket  Series,  Identification  Books — "  How  to  Know,"  brief  and 

in  portable  shape. 

III.  FUNCTIONS   OF  NATURE 

These  books  will  treat  of  the  relation  of  facts  to  causes  and 
effects — of  heredity  and  the  relations  of  organism  to  environment. 
8vo.  6fx8§  in. 

Already  publisht: 

THE  BIRD  :  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  C.  W.  BEEBE, 
Curator  of  Birds  in  the  New  York  Zoological  Park.  $3.50  net; 
by  mail,  $3.80. 

Arranged  for: 

THE  INSECT  :  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  VERNOV  L. 
KELLOGG,  Professor  in  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 

THE  FISH  :  ITS  FORM  AND  FUNCTION,  by  H.  M.  SMITH,  of 
the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Fisheries. 

IV.  WORKING  WITH  NATURE 

How  to  propagate,  develop,  care  for  and  depict  the  plants  and 
animals.  The  volumes  in  this  group  cover  such  a  range  of  subjects 
that  it  is  impracticable  to  make  them  of  uniform  size. 

Already  publisht: 

NATURE  AND  HEALTH,  by  EDWARD  CURTIS,  Professor  Emeritus 
in  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons.  12mo.  $1.25  net; 
by  mail,  $1.37. 

THE  FRESHWATER  AQUARIUM  AND  ITS  INHABITANTS. 
A  Guide  for  the  Amateur  Aquarist,  by  OTTO  EGGELIXG  and 
FREDERICK  EHRENBERG.  Large  12mo.  $2.00  net;  by  mail,  $2.19. 

2 


AMERICAN     NATURE    SERIES     (Continued} 

IV.     WORKING   WITH   NATURE  (Continutd) 

THE  LIFE  OF  A  FOSSIL  HUNTER,  by  CHARLES  H.  STERNBERG. 
Large  12mo.  $1.60  net;  by  mail,  $1.72. 

SHELL-FISH  INDUSTRIES,  by  JAMES  L.  KELLOGG,  Professor 
in  Williams  College.  Large  12mo.  $1.75  net;  by  mail,  $1.93. 

THE  CARE  OF  TREES  IN  LAWN,  STREET  AND  PARK,  by 
B.  E.  FERNOW,  Professor  of  Forestry,  University  of  Toronto. 
Large  12mo.  $2.00  net ;  by  mail,  $2.17. 

HARDY  PLANTS  FOR  COTTAGE  GARDENS,  by  HELEN  R. 
ALBEE.  Large  12mo.  $1.60  net  ;  by  mail,  $1.73. 

INSECTS  AND  DISEASE,  by  RENNIE  W.  DOANE,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor in  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University.  $1.50  net; 
by  mail,  $1.62. 

Arranged  for; 

PHOTOGRAPHING  NATURE,  by  E.  R.  SANBORN,  Photographer 
of  the  New  York  Zoological  Park. 

CHEMISTRY  OF  DAILY  LIFE,  by  HEKRY  P.  TALBOT,  Professor 
of  Chemistry  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology. 

V.    DIVERSIONS    FROM  NATURE 

This  division  will  include  a  wide  range  of  writings  not  rigidly 
systematic  or  formal,  but  written  only  by  authorities  of  standing. 
Large  12mo.  5jx8j  in. 

Already  publisht: 

INSECT  STORIES,  by  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG.  $1.50  net;  by  mail, 
$1.62. 

FISH  STORIES,  by  CHARLES  F.  HOLDER  and  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 
$1.75  net;  by  mail,  $1.87. 

Arranged  for; 
BIRD  NOTES,  by  C.  W.  BEEBE. 

VI.    THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  NATURE 

A  Series  of  volumes  by  President  JORDAN,  of  Stanford  Univer- 
sity, and  Professors  BROOKS  of  Johns  Hopkins,  LULL  of  Yale,  THOM- 
SON of  Arberdeen,  PRZIBRAM  of  Austria,  ZUR  STRASSEN  jf  Germany, 
and  others .  Edited  by  Professor  KELLOGG  of  Leland  Stanford.  1 2mo. 
5|x7£  in. 

Arranged  for: 
THE    STABILITY   OF   TRUTH,  by  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN. 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY,    NEW  YORK 

JANUARY,  '11. 


LATEST  VOLUMES  IN 

THE   AMERICAN   NATURE   SERIES 

(Prospectus  of  entire  Series  on  request) 
THE  CARE  OF  TREES  IN  LAWN,  STREET,  AND  PARK 

By  B.  E.  FERNOW,  of  the  University  of  Toronto.  Illustrated. 
$2.00  net. 

Written  for  amateurs  by  a  forester,  this  volume  furnishes  information 
such  as  the  owner  of  trees  or  the  "tree  warden"  may  need. 

"  Truly  admirable  .  .  .  eminently  practical.  .  .  .  His  list  of  trees  desirable 
for  shade  and  ornament  is  a  full  and  most  valuable  one.  and  the  illustrations 
are  enlightening." — ./V.  Y.  Tribune. 

HARDY  PLANTS  FOR  COTTAGE  GARDENS 

By  HELEN  R.  ALBEE,  Author  of  "  Mountain  Playmates." 
Illustrated.  I2mo. 

A  personal  and  very  readable  record,  illustrated  by  photographs,  of  the 
author's  success  in  assembling  within  a  limited  area,  the  choice  varieties  of 
hardy  shrubs,  annuals,  and  perennials,  so  arranged  as  to  give  a  succession  of 
bloom  of  pure  color  in  each  bed.  With  a  list  giving  manner  of  growth, 
height,  time  of  blooming,  exact  color,  special  requirements  of  soil  and 
moisture,  "  easy  ways"  taught  by  experience,  and  many  et  ceteras  of  vital 
importance. 

QHITI  I    FKIH    IWni  TQTPIFQ  B^  JAMES  L-  KELLOGG 

SHELL-FISH  INDUSTRIES  of  Williams  College. 

Illustrated  by  half-tones  and  original  drawings.    $1.75  net. 

Covers  classification,  propagation,  and  distribution. 

"  Interests  all  classes,  the  biologist,  the  oyster  grower,  the  trader  and  the 
eater  of  oysters.  The  science  is  accurate,  and  in  some  points  new;  it  is 
made  perfectly  comprehensible  and  the  whole  book  is  very  readable." — New 
York  Sun. 

FISH  STORIES:    Alleged  and   Experienced,  with  a.  Little 
History,  Natural  and  Unnatural 

By  CHARLES  F.  HOLDER,  Author  of  "  The  Log  of  a  Sea 
Angler,"  etc.,  and  DAVID  STARR  JORDAN,  Author  of  "  A  Guide 
to  the  Study  of  Fishes,"  etc.  With  colored  plates  and  many 
illustrations  from  photographs.  $1.75  net. 

"  A  delightful  miscellany,  telling  about  fish  of  the  strangest  kind,  with 
scientific  description  melting  into  accounts  of  personal  adventure.  Nearly 
everything  that  is  entertaining  in  the  fish  world  is  touched  upon  and  science 
and  fishing  are  made  very  readable."— New  York  Sun. 

INSECT  STORIES  By  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG. 

Illustrated,  $1.50  net. 

Strange,  true  stories,  primarily  for  children,  but  certainly  for  those  grown- 
ups who  like  to  read  discriminatingly  to  their  children. 

"  The  author  is  among  a  few  scientific  writers  of  distinction  who  can 
interest  the  popular  mind.  No  intelligent  youth  can  fail  to  read  it  with 
delight  and  profit."—  The  Nation. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COM  PANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


LEADING    AMERICANS 

Edited  by  W.  P.  TRENT.    Large  I2mo.    With  portraits. 
Each  $1.75,  by  mail  $1.90. 

LEADING  AMERICAN  SOLDIERS 

By  R.  M.  JOHNSTON,  Lecturer  in  Harvard  University,  Au- 
thor of  ""Napoleon,"  etc. 

Washington,  Greene,  Taylor,  Scott,  Andrew  Jackson,  Grant, 
Sherman,  Sheridan,  McClellan,  Meade,  Lee,  "  Stonewall  " 
Jackson,  Joseph  E.  Johnston. 

"  Very  interesting  .  .  .  much  sound  originality  of  treatment,  and 
the  style  is  very  clear." — Springfield  Republican. 

LEADING  AMERICAN  NOVELISTS 

By  Professor  JOHN  ERSKINE  of  Columbia. 
Charles  Brockden  Brown,  Cooper,  Simms,  Hawthorne,  Mrs. 
Stowe,  and  Bret  Harte. 

"  He  makes  his  study  of  these  novelists  all  the  more  striking  because 
of  their  contrasts  of  style  and  their  varied  purpose.  .  .  .  Cooper  .  .  . 
and  .  .  .  Hawthorne  ...  of  both  he  gives  us  an  exceedingly  graphic 
picture,  showing  the  men  both  through  their  life  and  their  works.  He 
is  especially  apt  at  a  vivid  characterization  of  them  as  they  appeared 
in  the  eyes  of  their  contemporaries  .  .  .  well  worth  any  amount  of 
time  we  may  care  to  spend  upon  them." — Boston  Transcript. 

LEADING  AMERICAN  ESSAYISTS 

By  WILLIAM  MORTON  PAYNE,  Associate  Editor  of  The  Dial. 
A    General    Introduction    dealing    with    essay    writing    in 
America,  and  biographies  of  Irving,  Emerson,  Thoreau,  and 
George  William  Curtis. 

"  It  is  necessary  to  know  only  the  name  of  the  author  of  this  work 
to  be  assured  of  jts  literary  excellence." — Literary  Digest. 

LEADING  AMERICAN  MEN  OF  SCIENCE 

Edited   by   President   DAVID   STARR  JORDAN. 

COUNT  RUMFORD,  by  Edwin  E.  Slosson;  ALEXANDER  WILSON  and 
AUDUBON,  by  Witmer  Stone;  SILLIMAN,  by  Daniel  Coit  Gilman;  JOSEPH 
HENRY,  by  Simon  Newcomb;  Louis  AGASSIZ,  by  Charles  Frederick 
Holder;  JEFFRIES  WYMAN,  by  Burt  C.  Wilder;  ASA  GRAY,  by  John  M. 
Coulter;  JAMES  DWIGHT  DANA,  by  William  North  Rice;  SPENCER 
FULLERTON  BAiRD,  by  Holder ;  MARSH,  by  Geo.  Bird  Grinnell;  EDWARD 
DRINKER  COPE,  by  Marcus  Benjamin;  JOSIAH  WILLARD  GIBBS,  by  Edwin 
E.  Slosson;  SIMON  NEWCOMB,  by  Marcus  Benjamin;  GEORGE  BROWN 
GOODE,  by  David  Starr  Jordan;  HENRY  AUGUSTUS  ROWLAND,  by  Ira 
Remsen;  WILLJAM  KEITH  BROOKS,  by  E.  A.  Andrews. 

OTHER  VOLUMES  contracted  for,  covering  LAWYERS,  POETS, 
STATESMEN,  EDITORS,  EXPLORERS,  etc.  Leaflet  on  application. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  (vii  '10)  >JEW  YORK 


THE  MIRAGE  OF  THE  MANY 

BY  WILLIAM  T.  WALSH 

A  novel  placed  in  a  large  American  city  during  a  supposed 
Socialistic  regime,  and  showing  results  inevitable  in  the  present 
state  of  human  nature.  It  is  hard  to  tell  whether  the  greater 
interest  is  in  the  story  or  the  problems.  The  characters  are 
from  all  classes  of  society  and  cover  a  wide  range  of  occupations. 

STUDIES  IN  AMERICAN  TRADE-UNIONISM 

J.  H.  HOLLANDER  and  G.  E.  BARNETT  (Editors) 

Twelve  papers  by  graduate  students  and  officers  of  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  the  results  of  original  investigations  of 
representative  Trade  Unions.  There  are  also  chapters  on 
Employers'  Associations,  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor.  (380  pp.,  8vo,  $2.75  net.  By 
mail,  $2.98.) 

"  A  study  of  trade-unions  in  the  concrete.  Impartial  and  thorough  .  .  . 
expertly  written."— New  York  Times  Review. 

"Though  confined  to  particular  features  of  particular  trade  unions,  the 
data  dealt  with  are  comprehensive  and  typical ;  so  that  the  result  is  a  sub- 
stantial contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  trade-union  structure  and  func- 
tion. .  .  .  Excellent  studies.'' — New  York  Evening  Post. 

"  It  is  doubtful  if  anything  approaching  it  in  breadth  and  co-ordination 
has  yet  found  its  way  into  print.  ...  A  very  useful  book."— San  Francisco 
Chronicle. 

THE  FATE  OF  ICIODORUM 

By  DAVID   STARR  JORDAN,  President  of  Stanford 
University 

QOC.  net ;  by  mail  g6c. 
The  story  of  a  city  made  rich  by  taxation. 

"  After  reading  this  book,  no  man  who  wishes  to  get  at  the  fundamental 
theory  of  protection  can  plead  ignorance." — New  York  Evening  Post. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW    YORK 


FOR    TRAVELERS 

IN  AND   OUT  OF  FLORENCE 

By  MAX  VERNON.  With  48  full-page  illustrations  from 
photographs  and  about  100  drawings  by  Maud  Lanktree. 
370  pp.  With  index.  8vo.  $2.50  net;  by  mail  $2.67. 

A  reliable  tho  delightfully  informal  book  liable  to  prove  as  attractive 
to  fireside  travelers  as  to  those  who  actually  cross  the  sea.  Besides 
covering  Florence's  art  treasures  and  the  sights  of  interest  to  tourists, 
including  the  delightful  excursions  to  Vallambrosa,  and  over  the  Con- 
suma  Pass,  the  Casentino,  Prato,  Pit  oja,  Lucca  and  Pisa,  the  author 
also  treats  of  House-hunting,  Servants,  Shopping,  etc. 

"  His  accounts  of  his  hunting  for  a  home  and  of  the  ways  of  the  people 
are  full  of  sympathy  and  liking  for  things  Italian.  Equally  enjoyable 
are  his  descriptions  later  of  street  scenes  and  out-of-door  life.  ...  He  is 
a  pleasant  companion  in  'doing'  Florence.  .  .  .  The  selection  of  photo- 
graphs is  excellent  and  the  drawings  by  Maud  Lanktree  are  charming. 
The  book  will  help  the  traveler  and  will  please  and  instruct  the  stay-at- 
home."—  New  York  Sun. 

FRENCH  CATHEDRALS    AND  CHATEAUX 

By  CLARA  CRAWFORD  PERKINS.  Two  volumes,  with  photo- 
gravure frontispieces  and  62  half-tone  plates.  8vo.  $5.00  net, 
boxed,  carriage  extra. 

"A  most  valuable  work.  A  more  complete  study  of  the  architecture, 
or  clever  scheme  of  giving  lucid  pictures  of  its  history  could  not  be 
desired."—  The  Reader. 

"Of  genuine  artistic  value.    Notable  for  its  excellent  arrangement." 

—Boston  Herald. 

THE  BUILDERS  OF  SPAIN 

Two  volumes,  with  two  photogravure  frontispieces  and  62 
half-tone  plates.  8vo.  $5.00  net,  boxed,  carriage  extra. 

"  A  very  delightful  book."—£alftmore  Sun. 

"  It  is  a  pleasure  to  take  up  a  beautiful  book  and  find  that  the  subject- 
matter  is  quite  as  satisfactory  as  the  artistic  illustrations,  the  rich 
covers  and  the  clear  print."— Springfield  Republican. 

POEMS  FOR  TRAVELERS 

Compiled  by  MARY  R.  J.  DuBois.  i6mo.  Cloth,  $1.50; 
leather,  $2.50. 

THE  POETIC  OLD-WORLD 
THE  POETIC  NEW- WORLD 

Compiled  by  Miss  L.  H.  HUMPHREY.  i6mo.  Cloth,  $1.50 
each  ;  leather,  $2.50  each. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK. 


^~W^A^ 

tCeLx^fej^ju-**     *~*iir*~*   . 

UCSB  LIBRAR/ 


..!£  .5?^.™™  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FA 


